Stephen Romer

No Interruptions

issue 02 June 2007

I cannot wholly decide
about my father’s resolve not
to speak

or seek out texts
or make arrangements

except perhaps to the pillow
and the blankets.

Was it for him, or for us,
or was he ‘in denial’

when he preferred to drift and doze
to music or ambient conversation

as if some unusual act
would make the thing too real?

That adherence to routine,
The Times and the radio, was it

because the stream of time
remained too precious to interrupt
early,

as when he waited for the concert to
end
before unfolding himself from the
car?

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