Epithalamium

A Postscript for A.

He’s in love with being in love
but how much love is left to give
at 78? She’s 46,
Romanian, and here to live:

he’s signed to her his full devotion
and terraced house. Now he sits
alone all day in a tiny room
he used to only sleep in. It’s

a refuge. She sleeps where his office was
on a single mattress he acquired
then busies herself: this kitchen needs
stripping, then the yard. She’s tired.

She fends off calls: ‘No here, he sleepink’
she says a few times every day,
to grainy voices down the phone
who’d called to chat chess, poetry
...