‘I’m a writer

By passion,

And maybe


I like it for

The same

reason actors

Do’ - a lie

I tell him

About oxford

He can hear it

In my voice,


I tell him

I can hear

His London,

‘Yes, me and

My wife-’

He swallows

And non-nods


At her empty chair

Again. I say

‘You meet lots

Of people and

Find characters’


‘Perhaps really

You already

Knew your

Characters.

But then they

Find you.’


I would like

His clairvoyant poetics

If they did

Not ruin

This whole poem.

‘Which artists

do you like?’


I scramble

Around Beckett

& DFW, he

Nods and I

(XknowX) eat myself,

He has read

The jest, he

Knows, he


Asked me

Because he

Knows it’s

Awful, he

Knows I lied. All of a

Sudden

My

Cover is

Blown


‘I work in

Bathrooms, have

For 25 years,

So I’m always

Looking

At everything

…you don’t

Often see