Karen Green
The young man from Leeds
The young man from Leeds
is a picture in the frame of
my open front door.
He is small maybe
smaller than me
and his hands are little
with long athletic fingers
like a violinist’s
and his clothes smell of cigarettes.
The north-country accent
gets more and more obvious
when he talks about home.
The young man from Leeds
cuddles and caresses
Charley the lurcher.
Charley’s so greedy
and I warn him that no-one
will love a fat lurcher.
The young man from Leeds
offers to have him
and we both know
he isn’t joking -
but of course it’s not practical.
The way I feel today
if the young man from Leeds
raised his little finger
I might trot after him
the length of the country
forgetting how old I am.
Oh young man from Leeds
I want to keep you forever
have you in the house always
fixing my computer
fine-tuning my software
seeing to my motherboard.
You went up to Scotland
to teach people Excel
and Microsoft Office
and I felt unreasonably
that you had deserted me.
You’d come into my kitchen
and brightened it all up
and when you’d gone away
the kitchen felt empty
the kettle didn’t shine
and the cooker didn’t bustle
and my food tasted only of
chalk and blotting paper.
Wouldn’t you come back again
and sleep in my wardrobe
except when I want you -
let me put you on and off
like a favourite frock?
It’s strange I can always tell
when a man has had a haircut
but what I can’t tell
is how he reacts
when I say
you’ve had your hair cut
and I really like the way it looks.
Page(s) 22
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