FASHION GOES TO HEAVEN

In memory of fashion guru Isabella Blow, who died yesterday.

In the afterlife the angels
are shifting on their clouds
and the hosts of the deceased
are reassessing their shrouds.

All the chubby cherubim
have a glad glint in their eyes
as they lift up their smocks
to expose their fleshy thighs.

Saint Peter’s wearing a lobster hat
and a McQueen creation,
Gabriel’s dressed in Gucci
there’s a new sort of elation

flooding through the heavenly hosts,
an Elysian rosy glow,
as heaven welcomes through its gates
Isabella Blow.

The cherubs are all wrangling
to be the most like Sophie Dahl
and demons are begging entry
with a raspy, pleading snarl.

Other gods and goddesses
have booked a place to stay.
All the metaphysical world’s
joining in the fray.

There are thunder gods
and goddesses with the heads of cats
queuing up with the ordinary dead
for advice from Issie on hats.

Jesus has stopped wearing sandals
and has set a new afterlife trend
and Saint Michael’s set up Second Coming
a fashion line set to ascend

through the heavenly bodies
if only Isabella approves.
With Isabella’s arrival
heaven’s jumping from its grooves,

has hired as a catwalk
the Norse Gods’ rainbow bridge
and is only keeping Champagne
and lettuce in the fridge.