FLASH-BACK ON FOLLY

Posted by Admin on 28 January 2009, 12:00 am

The guide-book did it – woke
the memories of long ago –
of Exeter and Elsie – brought
remorse that thoughts of those
two names must resurrect –
remorse commingled with
a mixture of my calf-love’s joy
and pain.
Much wiser ’twould have been
to keep its covers closed,
for photographs and text,
impregnant with enough
disturbing sovenance
to move, yet once again
evoked the bleakness and
the bliss.
Old churches, Guildhall, and
the tranquil Close, the heights
of Northernhay where one
ecstatic evening, fresh
from Les Sylphides, I walked
on air, now taunt me with
the past – replace me on
that rack reserved for those
who’ve loved another’s wife –
an inutility of torment for
a death-extinguished flame.