Tim Kindberg
Marcus
I first saw him in The Peacock
eyeing himself in the bar mirror,
five-pound note in fist. Perfect in electric
or day-light. Something told me then
his heart shrank in a deep sleep.
His smile
nonplussed the cops
drew tears from the witness,
lining up - you could say joining me -
on the identity parade. We had an act,
cracked them up. It wasn’t me
officer. And it wasn’t me neither.
His conception dreamed of itself.
Reincarnation is for the birds;
two lives better be simultaneous.
Evening star, morning star
he knew them both; could rest,
rise or set with them.
Saturday morning, the worse for sleeplessness,
he smiles faintly at my astonished mother
across the road then, another day,
at my mother’s lover. What could sister say
when she saw her brother
up from London - he’d never told her.
He haunts the pubs where
he knows they’ll recognise me;
puts his arm around Ruth
to reassure like the close friend
she thinks he is:
Now, If I were you....
Only I, trained in minutiae,
know he’s stayed younger,
broken the symmetry.
Once we stood within spitting distance
twinned by the oak counter. Our eyes
met above glasses tipped to lips.
I felt closer then than ever again
to where I’ve always wanted to be.
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