The Brass Corset

by Robert James DeBurgh (Poet)

Oh for a muse of fire that would express my joys
As here, in Madame Fatima Foy's
'Salon de Corsetierie'

Ensconced in my tiny hidey-hole in the gap between
The back wall of the shop and the fitting room,
I, with my eye pressed to the peephole in this gloom
Observe the wonders and the mysteries of the Art.
Here are transfomations worked, fat women into thin
Ladies, changed by Fatima's Arts.

Oh dear, I feel a fart's begun.
The noise and stench will surely blow the gaff !
But wait! What's this ? What do I see?
This gross and corpulent dame that now takes off her things,
Her wig, her dress and earrings, is now revealed as;....

Sir Trevelyan St.John Maguire, Her Majesty's Envoy and
Plenipotentiary to the Royal Court !!
And The dirty old bugger has on a Brass Corset!!...

Now I remember where I saw him. He's Euphemia Forsett-Crumpton
"Wife" of Lord Plumpton !! Well, I'll be buggered !
I'm sure he is!

Faubourg Ste. Honore. Paris, 1894

NOTES ON PROVENANCE;
The Work was found by Aloysius Finnigan, an itinerant Irish labourer, among the detritus and rubble after the demolition of the former Corsetierie of Mme Foy.
Apparently Finnigan tried to blackmail Lord Plumpton using this evidence, but found that that had already been done by a famous Poet, who shall remain nameless, but whose initials were Robert James DeBurgh.