for Pete & Elaine
A blue boat speeds into the harbour
and we too have been trawling
all evening, but in the car,
spreading our nets to catch
any quick-slipping memories.
In streets, houses and rooms
so familiar yet so changed
we are seeking out creatures
of long ago, our former selves
seeming a different species.
Lights of the windows, aquariums
where students bend over computers,
while we strain for elusive shapes,
dark movements on walls and ceilings
and snatches of voices and songs.
On the brink of a stone jetty
we feed the outgoing tide
with ashes of the last generation :
powdery dust of two lives
and below, the shoals unseen.
A blue boat speeds into the harbour
and we too have been trawling
all evening, but in the car,
spreading our nets to catch
any quick-slipping memories.
In streets, houses and rooms
so familiar yet so changed
we are seeking out creatures
of long ago, our former selves
seeming a different species.
Lights of the windows, aquariums
where students bend over computers,
while we strain for elusive shapes,
dark movements on walls and ceilings
and snatches of voices and songs.
On the brink of a stone jetty
we feed the outgoing tide
with ashes of the last generation :
powdery dust of two lives
and below, the shoals unseen.
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