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  • Amy's lovers
  • Martin Figura (bio)

It's not enough to love them,she must climb into their skinsand wear them like pyjamas.

It's Fireman Sam just now, has beenfor a couple of years. She wandersthat pyromaniacal valley town

with matches in her back-pack.She'll smoke out the heroinside herself, hit rewind again

and again, can't get enoughof his tune or his merchandise.It's as if Springfield never happened

until six pm, when she turns Sam offfor Channel 4, taps her fingertips togetherand is Mister Charles Montgomery Burns.

She has his shaky walk down patand mimics his (villainous) laugh,while Sam pretends to polish his axe.

He knows it's not the last Lothario though,but the next, some new kid, all pixels,on the big screen at the multiplex.

A cheap toy with her Big Mac, thenit's shopping for DVDs, utility beltsand action figures and his heart's a stone

while out west, Woody tips back his hatand squints through a haze of all the years, [End Page 144] since Shaggy turned up in his mystery van

and she began to dress in brownand green and left her sheriff badgeto tarnish. But Woody was first

and best and bides his time.Toy Stories two and three went bybut he's pretty sure, when four comes out,

that she'll mosey into town wearingher cowskin waistcoat, say: Yee-Haw Woodyas if she's never been gone. [End Page 145]

Martin Figura

Martin explains the context for this poem: 'My daughter Amy is thirty years old and has Down's Syndrome. She is quite curmudgeonly (I believe it may be Irritable Down's Syndrome). Being her parent continues to be one of the most uplifting experiences of my life. She's maintained imaginative and intense relationships with a series of cartoon characters ever since she's been able to express herself; hence the poem.'

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