Alan Hardy
We Too
So it’s all over.
The long-legged man in black, grinning large and sheepish,
in his black top hat making mincing steps
ahead of the small procession
mournfully changing gear
to slow it down
and discharge at the entrance
with a big respectful smile
his passenger
with clumsy civil handshakes
barely-remembered relatives
like in groups collecting at aimless corners
suspiciously look up.
All over, the fat-jowled man’s roast-beef proud stentorian tones,
raising himself up, hands on lectern,
to do his well-eaten, effortless English best,
chew out his words deep from a well-delivered chest.
All over, the closing curtain’s supposed meaningful silence,
as tasteful and moving as
the blowing out of a candle.
All over, embarrassed words to get back to the cars,
an old family photo exchanging hands
detains a huddled cold circle,
its little history of heart-ache
bandied about from hand to hand.
All over, the ritual, the emptiness,
the short-lived poignancy of grating hymn’s
shakily-rendered tear-jerk
like a wail in our desolation,
all over, all over,
like we too had never been.
Page(s) 23
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