Spectator poems
From the magazine

Grumpy On Your Birthday

Claudine Toutoungi
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 13 Dec 2025
issue 13 December 2025

I give you permission to be grumpy on your birthday.

Quibbles, Tussles… escalating to full-scale

plate-smashing Rows are allowed.

Hypochondria, Melancholia, Cattiness, Swipes, Barbs, Pollution

Anxiety — all shall be smiled upon.

Not literally.

There will be a window at noon

for a forty-five minute Tirade on Money Worries.

Longer, if necessary.

Don’t hold back. Anything at all till midnight

is permitted, after which, with a swoosh, naturellement,

you’ll be Sweetness and Light.