That must have been a fairly happy day
— squeezed together in the booth and making
silly faces. I found the four-leaf photo
in a folder from some fifty years ago
— she a beauty, me a gurning extra —
and wonder how she fared, what stars and headlands
she steered by… That year we hitched round Holland,
stayed in houseboats and a Javan commune,
paid homage to the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts.
No trace of her on the nosy internet —
though she may have assumed another name.
I’m left with the hope, whoever she became,
happier days befell her. A fledgling actor,
she took the silent part of Helen in Marlowe’s play.
