XBased on and an extension of I Looked Away, when Death gets a tad more conversational. |
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Bottomless Cup(a Variation on I Looked Away)He ducked between cars,angling across the street, one step ahead of the bus Hurrying, mind elsewhere, lost in scattered thought and felt the tug at his shoulder Excuse me? He looked surprised I’m Death I beg your pardon? Death But I’m late, really got to run No hurry You can’t be serious, not now Serious. Yes, now Surely you have the wrong fellow No Sure? Sure Let’s talk about it first Cup of coffee? Yeah, coffee would be nice They all want that What, coffee? To talk about it first Well, it seems the least you could do Cream and sugar? Yeah, now what’s this all about About? Yeah, you know, why now, why me? Why not? It’s just that I wasn’t expecting No one ever does Perhaps, but look here, I suppose you have identification Not necessary Cryptic fellow. Not even papers? No Well, I must say, rather shabbily dressed I mean, not even a crease in the trousers That a problem to you? Well, I suppose not, but it seems so . . . Irregular? Yes rather, I mean one expects What? Well, an appointment. I mean this is a bit much to take in, without an appointment You knew Well, in the abstract, of course I knew So, here I am Yes of course, this is so somehow un abstract I mean this is here and now, no phone call first No phone call No knock at the door, you could have knocked Never knock A little preparation would have been thoughtful A lifetime to prepare There you go again, in the abstract There are some things I’ll need to attend to first No need Easy for you to say, but I have obligations No obligations At the very least, a letter to write, things to say Should have said them But who would know, who would ever expect You knew Well, what will they all think, when I’m gone so suddenly? Very little Not much comfort in that, certainly be a shock Not so shocking There will be tears, they’ll weep and wish me back A few. Not many. Not for long I’ll be missed, grieved for, agonized over Not much Well, I can’t bear the thought of not much and not for long Not yours to bear But I thought somehow it was all so important Lot of that going around Where are we going, what’s it like where we’re going? You done with your coffee? Not really, does it make a difference? I could use another cup Yeah, well me too, so answer me, what’s it like Not supposed to say Oh yes, well. Expect me to just come along then Pretty much And suppose I’m not ready, refuse to go and all that Not an option Let’s talk this through, is there a way around it She’s slow bringing coffee I mean are there loopholes, something to bargain away You’ve been reading too much I don’t suppose you’ve ever been bought off You don’t have much Yes well, remind me of that of course, but supposing It always happens What? They meet me and start supposing Well, only natural, you do come as somewhat of a shock Never really understood that What? How the inevitable could shock Okay, so I buy the bit, now what? The bit? Show biz term, a kind of referential thing Oh So let’s get on with it then, where from here? From here? Yeah, I mean we can’t just keep drinking coffee Thought you liked coffee |
 This poem is included in Jim Freeman's poetry collection THE SMELL OF TWEED AND TOBACCO available here in print or as an e-Book in your favorite formats. |
