The Internet doesn’t tell me
where they’ve gone, my predeceased
contemporaries. It’s
a lengthening list though the more
notable are tidily erased
from each year’s Who’s Who.
The Catholics are purgatorially
drying out, the Rationalists
in their immaculately designed
resort (their last) are undoubtedly
scrutinising the bill. Those
who were politically bent
are eternally counting numbers,
while the Conservationists
have everything they wished for
and no one to share it with.
All those I’ve forgotten
hover in the Cloud like the shades
that greeted Aeneas,
hoping that a casual, even
an accidental keystroke,
might grant them a momentary flicker
on the great screen of Eternity.
And me? I’ll be forever revising
that poem, you know, the one
I said I’d read to you
when it was finished …

Andrew Taylor

CONTENTS: JULY–AUGUST 2012