AFTER YOU

( for Bud )

Time is now
divided

between before &
after you.

It is as if
a line has been drawn

down the sky
ending in a loud clang

a very definite then
& now. . .

Even your ghost pleads
for  me to go on

as if I had a choice.

I go on because I have to
go on.

Needs must
and all that.

But when my mind is not
looking..I. . .

sneak back into the past
have the chats we never had

...the last lost laughs.

Tell you the latest score
'cos I know you'd want to know.

Or I sneak you
into a poem

make you live

let you live
a life of words.

Then a voice says:
"Are you listening to me?

And I smuggle myself
back into the present.

Say: "Sorry...sorry yes
I am!"