Goodbye Wendy

I don’t suppose I expected to see you

at the traffic lights in your car

as I was crossing Museum Street

or in the corridor of the hospital

which is where I saw you last -

not the same one where I last saw Ruth,

or get another call from you at work

when you weren’t expecting me to answer.

If you rang that number again,

perhaps you would expect that.

I thought you’d like or comment

on more of my posts, that I would

like more of yours. Some deaths

I almost expect to hear of any day -

I think I’ve learned not to be surprised,

but yours I somehow never imagined,

never thought I would get to write this.

I hope you and Ruth are sitting together

like you did on my two-seater sofa

last time you both came to my second-floor flat

in Castlegate, and I said I thought we’d sit

in the lounge that night as we wouldn’t

be writing but talking and reading.

You’ll never write or read again

but I like to picture you both

sitting smiling as you were then

with lots to talk about. Say hello from me.