GWEN
At the poetry reading
in Croft House, she wrote down
her phone-number on a piece of paper,
said, give me a call some time.
But I never did,
instead, walked one day
the few blocks to 240 Robert Street,
then, much too unsure to knock,
went back by the way I'd come.
They're saying near the end
she went searching neighbourhood alleys
for stray cats, and of course
drank far too much,
but I don't want to know about it.
Enough that I walked by her house,
afraid our lives over so many years
had drifted too far apart
for even casual conversation,
afraid where she was bold,
cautious where she took chances,
not wanting even now to believe
she could easily have died all alone.
At the poetry reading
in Croft House, she wrote down
her phone-number on a piece of paper,
said, give me a call some time.
But I never did,
instead, walked one day
the few blocks to 240 Robert Street,
then, much too unsure to knock,
went back by the way I'd come.
They're saying near the end
she went searching neighbourhood alleys
for stray cats, and of course
drank far too much,
but I don't want to know about it.
Enough that I walked by her house,
afraid our lives over so many years
had drifted too far apart
for even casual conversation,
afraid where she was bold,
cautious where she took chances,
not wanting even now to believe
she could easily have died all alone.