Collecting us from Chelmsford station in the rain
Exploding our refrain to Edward in the car
‘They haven’t changed at all. They’re just the same’
He said, that’s just it, as if nothing changes
As if, after all the struggle, loss and love
Where is progress, what is worth the while?
But that’s not it at all, I said
That same invite to join the ping pong club
Behind the curtains in the needlework room
That Gig extended to me, aged 12
Shy, stammering, lacking her ease of merging
And delighted to be included in her gang.
(By genetic dint of wearing a bra – ping pong!)
Is the same invite to join us here
This day to a city bar, on the old Fleet river
And drink champagne, hug and cry,
After thirty seven separating years,
You have not changed at all, just the same
That same ease that Mina gifts me now,
As she did then, her theatre that lifts
My sometime serious life up to a stage
And makes me laugh. Same now as then,
Five children, no children, husband, no husband,
Dogs – these are the matters not the forms.
We were naked then, uncouth, not tutored
In how to camouflage a fault, present a profile
So are we now, there is no bush to hide.
We found our place, our cast, our friends,
Our jealousies, our fears, and dramas
And just the same, they come back now
Turning up my trousers, still small
But yes there is a change, an ease
That shame, or blame is gone, instead
A comfortable place, so here I am.
15th July 2012
Kalikellett 