Tuesday, 01 September 2009

A VISIT TO THE NURSING HOME

You sit in your wheelchair
Staring out of the window.
‘Oh, there’s a pussycat,’ you say,
Then, roused by a passerby,
‘Ruddy beards.’

You know I once had
A bearded lover
But we’ve never discussed it.

Sex is a subject
Not to be mentioned.

The silence between us
Stretches and stretches.

What can I tell you today?

That you are going to die soon?

That the life you have now
Is no life?

Here are more subjects
That cannot be mentioned.