Vigilante Love
by
Norman King
Lloyd
Email: kingk_lloyd@lineone.net
I walk away
Leave
the mourners eating out their hearts
With artichokes
and lemon grass.
Stand sentinel
in her garden,
Dream bad old dreams,
The lily-pond we
fought over,
Her cruel laugh,
her temper and her pain
All those bits
of fertility
Now gone to seed.
Called indoors
I see her piano
clogged with snacks
No longer fresh.
Spilt wine over
the charming song
And people already
deciding
What they’re going
to take away.
I wash and tumble-dry
her clothes,
Usher out all deadly
aunts,
Acquaintances from
‘The Office’
Murderous spooks,
And the child from
down the road.
Alone, I do the
paperwork,
My words haunt
and hurt.
Leave everything
neat and tidy, I’d said.
The candles do
not flicker,
The antique clock
no longer ticks,
The cat has gone.
And within the
quiet dark room
I ask confidentially:
‘Stay over? If
that’s all right?’
