My watch

To me, a brother was

the most obvious thing.

Not to him.

He'd never had one before.

The experience I've had least,

though he's been gone 10 times

that long, is not having him.

He was called, David.

He was rotten at tying his shoes.

Why wait for another day?
You know this one is happening
and will be the same after it has happened.


Nothing will come to take its place
and that will be fine, good.

Though not inhuman, we can play
at what it would be like to be God,
and God will not take us away.

Another time I was at your house.
It was suddenly dark inside.


A wind swept past the bark
of some trees. It was overdue,
they said. All storms are inept.











It was time to find the mind-crystal,
pore over what we still had,
the huge resource we owed.












John Ashbery
Hungry Again
  A Worldly Country
Harper Collins, 2007©




In San Marino with our mother
At his pool at school
College favoured on our mother's side
Navy tradition, junior officer's
  first crossing of the Date Line
Last hours
He and I