Laura
We found this picture of a lion on the internet the other day and it looks exactly like this girl I was in love once with called Laura.

She didn’t look exactly like this obviously. She had her hair in a pony tail, and lions don’t have their hair in pony tails because the long haired ones are male and they’re into metal and drive Camaros and are a bit sensitive about other lions thinking they’re gay. Female lions have short hair, which is like the opposite of what normal people do, but not always. I’m talking about lesbians. I had my hair in a pony tail once when I used to sell African Exotica on Portobello road.

But that was quite a while ago and I don’t think there’s any need to read anything more into it than that. It’s just one of those things etc. Just one of those things.
Anyway, Laura was beautiful and had a croaky voice which made her even more beautiful than she already was - which was already beautiful. I was so in love with her I could hardly believe it. She could speak Chinese as well, which is indescribably cool. Everything about her was off-the-dial excellent. Luckily I didn’t ever get up the courage or whatever to tell her how in love with her I was, so the whole thing didn’t turn into an embarrasing fiasco etc, but for a year or so she was like, you know. The One. She was the jewel in the fermament. The aspadistra of the mountains etc. A sequin in life’s blurred bayeux.
Still, that was a while back and we went in different directions - but now she’s turned up on Facebook

which is annoying because I only just got myself deleted from Facebook (on account of it being run by the CIA) and it was no mean feat either. I had to specifically write to them… and they said they’d done it, but when I checked back 6 months later I was still there… so I wrote again, wording things a little more forcefully and they did it properly this time… but now Laura and that other one (who I was on about before) have both turned up on Facebook so I’ve had to craftily sneak back and re-join with a secret identity.

This one - which isn’t such a big secret now I suppose, now that I’ve told everyone on the whole internet about it - but I’m not a terribly commited stalker anyway (and being a stalker is all about commitment). I really don’t have the attention-span for that sort of thing and the only time I’ve logged into this account was when I first set it up and I was fairly drunk anyway, and now I’ve lost interest. The photo is me wearing a disguise - which I don’t think anyone will see through except the girl who took it (who’s also on facebook, but isn’t Laura or the other one) but I’m not too bothered about that because I’ve already fucked things up with her so badly that there isn’t much left to try out etc. This photo stands testament to that in itself. WTF?

What bothers me though is that my fake identity doesn’t have any friends, which is a bit sad if you ask me. It isn’t easy though… I mean having imaginary friends is second-nature. Everyone does it. Trying to make real friends when you yourself are imaginary is a different kettle of fish altogether - and while you might think I’d just be able to make friends with other imaginary people (yes, yes, I knew you were going to say that), it’s not always so easy to recognise them because EVERYONE wears disguises one way or another. That’s where the word Personality comes from… Persona - which is Greek for “to hide your hat under a bushell”. In those days Facebook was all done with clay tablets and scrolls and whatnot and was probably called Physogscroll, which is Greek for Facebook.
Which kindof leaves me back where I started.
So anyway. I’ve composed a small poem which expresses what I feel so much more eloquently than that other song about Laura ever could. It’s a haiku.
Laura Laura Laura
You have a glowing Aura
And remind me of various Fauna
and Flora
Oh Laura
Oh Laura Laura Laura
I first sawyer in the foyer
Oh Laura Laura Laura
Laura Laura
oh Laura
The second verse isn’t as good as the first… and I’m not sure that Haiku’s are supposed to have verses anyway so in future I might leave that off - or just have a chorus like the one off Hey Jude or whatever.



































