Billy

I thought of you today, old friend

As they shouted out to eat the phone book

 

Do you remember coming home and finding me

Beneath the bed

Staring at the springs

Claiming to be totally sober

 

Long time since sober

I tried to tell you on your last dot com

But lost five years in replying

 

You were no longer there

Recalling days of innocence

Halcyon days-

I laughed with Luke a I mispronounced it

 

Most nights

Returning from the pub

With Kith and Bodge and Coley

We watched some late night TV

Now it never shuts down

If still we were there we would sit up all night and bore ourselves to sleep

 

You always

(despite denials)

pulled down on your nose

before dropping your shreds

Quaint we said.

So now a lifetime later I click in the ether

Dr. John told us it wasn’t there

But we try to speak through that which does not exist

Except through a go between

 

Civil servant trained super efficient waiting to be of service, Sir.

 

The old home town looks the same but smaller

(syndrome)

Tip of the iceberg

Double you double you double you Dot

 

Outside the Mexican beers line up

Playing for San Tiana

They’re killing your soldiers below

Is this my Alamo?