Know Your Enemy
The glitterball orbits the ballroom conjuring a flux
of nylon swing. Her calves twist, her Grable heels kick
out the fear of telegrams from the front line.
Chicago knights and New York zoots strut before
the White City girl like competing matadors; she slides
down a pageant of olive and khaki -
No rations tonight baby!
Blakeys clack-clack, club tie strides, a Brylcreem Moses
parts the dance floor, bringing down the tablets from
the judges' mountain. A tidy finger taps
the swinging shoulder of the GI -
"Strictly ballroom here laddie"
Michael Wyndham
"Know Your Enemy" was first runner-up in the 2006 Frogmore Press poetry prize and was included in the autumn 2006 issue. In June 2008, South Bank poetry magazine published 'Know Your Enemy' alongside other poems themed on London's past.
Michael says: I have been writing and performing poetry since May 2005. This poetic calling came to me while massacring London's insects and vermin during my former day job as a pest controller.
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