Kings Cross, December 2004
Sam, in the bar
remembers him
grins an apology
cannot manage funerals
Too many bad deaths
too close together
I have to keep some distance
Men neglect their beer glasses
stare across the gulf
to where she twists onstage
and twists off
the scraps that decorate her flesh,
which meets the light, the smoke
the hungry eyes
and surrenders nothing