The Public Toilet Poem

This rather rude sonnet by Antonionioni reminds me rather of Swift and Pope in its bawdy subject matter and formal treatment - it's part of Tony's project to write a sonnet a day.


1457 - The inherent sexism of public urination

They say never walk under a ladder
Or something might fall down upon your head
But what’s worse is when you’ve a full bladder
And there’s no public lavatory ahead
It’s easier for a man’s load to be shed
I’ve seen it done by football supporters
In full view of a city’s teeming crowd
Or drunk blokes late at night; steaming rivers
That trickle down the walls into gutters
But for agonised females, far harder
They can’t wee standing up, not if well-bred
And if they tried, imagine how coppers
Would throw them in the van after knicker
Repositioning; a scene girls all dread

The poet that fell in the bog on the way to the lighthouse but kept his cool