for Dr Diane Lightfoot
Why is it so fascinating

watching disaster’s colonies

grow?
Some hang before the mouth

like clusters of grapes

others wriggle

like the tempting blips

of distant constellations.
Is the microscope honest?

Is the petrie dish safe?
Disaster can be

so gentle on the eye,

wondrously translucent

a swimming mystery

with delicate working

parts.
It’s not so easy

calling you names,

disaster.
Even when the lid

is lifted

on your putrid stink

you are generously

enlightening us

to the real world
its lurid lovely movie

Divide and Rule.