Lay for the Day 27th August

1965: The Beatles meet Elvis Presley, in Los Angeles.

Alphabeatles – part 5 [continued from 26th August]

U’s for the Unity
coming apart
as the decade wore out
and broke its heart.

V’s for the Vast
sums of money they made
proving juvenile style
a worldwide trade.

W’s the Wirral,
those church-hall gigs,
birds in vans, local fans,
cheap scent and cigs.

X the ingredient
ninety per cent
of rival bands
couldnÕt seem to invent.

Y is for Yellow,
their submarine’s hue,
which means that this poem
is nearly through

but for Z, the Zebra
crossing they strode
out of our lives on
across Abbey Road.

by John Gibbens,
from The Improvised Version, Vol. 1

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar