The House of Used Cards
For Tony Frazer
I was as distressed as anybody who could not be. Which is
going some. The hour wasn’t – you could dissemble, say
you were the original strangers, the one with terrifying gaps
in his memory – against it. All returns to finders had to be
actioned. Tidied and dressed up – another treaty, the like
of which I’d never before witnessed, was drawn up, signed
and sent to the front. Armies, suppliers and such were
invisible. Metaphorical dogs that barked, that set fire to
words both on and off the page. Walls, do you think back
to them, often, like me? The matters of wonder – ivy-clad,
graffitied, or both – they would be coming down. I took
my cue from a bookmaker pal, sat down and rewrote the
history of a planet, its procession of guilt and finery – see:
‘Notes’ in the margin, totally absent – they didn’t read well.
For Tony Frazer
I was as distressed as anybody who could not be. Which is
going some. The hour wasn’t – you could dissemble, say
you were the original strangers, the one with terrifying gaps
in his memory – against it. All returns to finders had to be
actioned. Tidied and dressed up – another treaty, the like
of which I’d never before witnessed, was drawn up, signed
and sent to the front. Armies, suppliers and such were
invisible. Metaphorical dogs that barked, that set fire to
words both on and off the page. Walls, do you think back
to them, often, like me? The matters of wonder – ivy-clad,
graffitied, or both – they would be coming down. I took
my cue from a bookmaker pal, sat down and rewrote the
history of a planet, its procession of guilt and finery – see:
‘Notes’ in the margin, totally absent – they didn’t read well.