An Early Lesson in Fake News
One paper said that my mother, The Venus of Vodka,
was blonde;
another that The Russian Doll
was a sexy redhead.
A third was certain that the nude model,
From Russia With Love,
was brunette.
She planned world domination
by luring her art students – lucky Eton boys –
behind the Iron Curtain.
I was never mentioned,
except as a side note:
Mrs Smits lives in Windsor
with her husband and two daughters.
How fortunate for mousy-haired me.
Teika Marija Smits is a writer, editor and mother-of-two. Her poems have been published in Atrium, Prole, LossLit, Brittle Star and The Poetry Shed. Her debut pamphlet, Russian Doll, is to be published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2020. https://marijasmits.wordpress.