In Particular

I was in Particular today
and I didn’t like it
I felt too immediately present
the wallpaper was reactionary
all plums and flightless birds
puce and spruce on raven-black
backgrounds – full of people who
seemed to belong: Ersatz jazzers
bowl-haired fakirs – high-brow
makers and low-brow fakers
idiots and hamlets and associated
affiliates and me sat on an obnoxious chair
half-crafted, splinter-arsed and worried
muttering: I don’t belong here, I don’t belong here
with quiet aplomb.