Overexposure On A
Station Bookstall

Magazines after raised circulation
    Decked with models they think most appealing
Merely generate mild irritation
    When it’s clear what it is they’re revealing.

 Whether languorous, muscular, ditzy,
     Strong and silent, demure. sentimental,
 Or suggestive, i.e. bum ‘n’ titsy,
     They display far too much that is dental.

Why this boom in bared teeth, all Macleany?
     Why the photo-shopped grins that afflict us?
Why must faces, both time-touched and teeny,
      Get reduced to a glistening rictus?

Can it be that the image-controllers
     Assume none of us buy printed paper
Without first seeing canines and molars
     Being flashed by some gloss-coated gaper?

 On a panel the world flocks to honour
     Who charms with her tight-lipped composure?
Yes, it's L. da V.'s Louvre-hung donna −
     Those cover-mouths too deserve closure.

Jerome Betts

If you have any comments on this poem, Jerome Betts would be pleased to hear from you.