•••••

It was nice of you to mention

and allow me to intrude

briefly in your education

it looked like you were having a good time

the Bow Road like a curtain

I was stuffed in an office in Rome

exhausted red aperitif

up and walking/

you told me to lie when the time came,

you allowed me/

Heart-attack or apoplexy? Hot blood

boiling the water in Vardaris Cove

and surfacing to warm island-stones

warming wind-cooled jelly skin

and the hollow rock there breathing