Paul Bee

Paul Bee has only written one poem and this is it.

I am an eccentric millionaire

I am an eccentric millionaire

I may have whatever I want

Houses, shoes, coffee,

the expense is nothing to me

Idle days of reading and listening

and sleeping in my villa

would bore me

and so I choose to work

The pressure

the early mornings

the quarrels and threats

the sense of going nowhere

delight me

I am an eccentric millionaire

my choices are unlimited

It is better to get under the skin of a place

than to tour endlessly

Public transport is so much more convenient

Have you ever tried to park a Ferrari?

— and you can read on a train

You couldn’t get all my stuff in the boot anyway

The old plimsolls

the knocked about guitar

the little television

are so much better made than the new stuff

Same with the flat

the smaller room, the comfy furniture

No big garden

the freedom to move if ever I feel like a change

Vegetables taste better when they’re just beginning to turn

I am an eccentric millionaire

and I don’t like the cinema

and I don’t like the theatre

– or concerts

Strangely, I can never feel hungry in a restaurant

You know, you pay £600 for a jacket

or £2,000 for a watch

and then you lose it!

You only really pay for the label

Those bloody horses

That flipping boat

And the staff

Who wants that kind of responsibility?

And I hate those big parties

with the stiff shirts and the little orchestra

Eating standing up

Superficial conversation

I could clear my debts tomorrow

I just enjoy paying late

It’s a sort of game

which amuses me

I am an eccentric millionaire

I need to trust my friends

I need to know they like me for who I am

and they don’t just want a piece of my fortune