Two Poems

Letter to Dr Johnson

Dear Dr Johnson, I am writing this note,
if you'll excuse a stranger's approach,

beside the statue of your cat Hodge,
whose eyes are fixed on your old front door

as if you might come out with an oyster
or two. That odd thought of yours

won't leave me: we shall receive no letters
in the grave, however companionable

we be, however desperate for people
and their news, their voices. I shall seal this

and slip it under your door, just in case
on the other side, disembodied but portly,

a dishevelled ghost is waiting daily
for a letter to land on the mat.


Strauss
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