Beyond strange, to find myself in this roomful of ghosts!
Or whatever’s left when the person’s gone.
Where was I when they all slipped out?
In life we shared so much, meals, beds, and life was great,
Thanks! It really was. Now I don’t know my hosts,
Let alone my fellow-guests… But here’s
Someone looking round him, clutching two beers,
One in each trembling hand – he’s coming this way,
Smiling – Is that one for me? I almost shout,
Wondered if you’d make it back! And so on…
When suddenly it strikes me: this is how I nightly
Move about my own rooms, swaying slightly,
Clutching a glass, under the embarrassed eye
Of my cat. Miaow… It’s not what I’d have chosen
But it’s how I live – which isn’t something I can say;
Meanwhile my new friend talks at me as if
We’ve known each other all our lives (perhaps
We have. Perhaps we’re even still alive!) He can riff,
Though: what a marvellous flat, how sexy S looks
In that dress, will her husband turn up late
As usual, and, is X still with us? His last two books…
Then we do heart stuff, prostate stuff – two chaps
No longer young (not old!) who find themselves frozen
Not quite where we were, when we believed we’d never die.
