Nagging questions, taunting remarks, objections:
He'd stop short, listen attentively,
take stock, take notice.
The demands made upon him, fully justified,
were impossible to comply with;
to refute the recriminations
was out of the question.
Just one thing he'd rather not have mentioned:
his problems.

That sort of talk was getting too much for him -
only the day before yesterday,
on his way home,
amongst cement mixers and ambulances,
through the half-open door of a phone box:
'My personal problems' -
a croaking sound from the earphone,
or at conventions:
...