Saturday 9 January 2016

Daily Poem 2016 / 009

 

The Man Next Door

“Neversweat,” my father called him

thanks to his habit of wearing a cravat

whatever the season.

He had the house they built next to ours

forever in the shadow of our garden walls

and the forsythia hedge I planted at seventeen.

Lionel Leadbetter (and honestly, why would

his parents think that a good idea?) used to

drop in for a cup of tea with my father

and her mechanic friends (the long drive

could hold half a dozen breakdown trucks)

but never realised their casual cruelty.

 

© Rachel Green 2016

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