Let’s Put the Past in Front of Us                                               

Finally we agree.  We share a vision.
Allow me to set out in black and white
Our firm, unspoken policy decision.
Feel free to change the parts that don’t sound right.

Let’s never meet or talk or make things better.
Let’s not consider how we each are flawed.
Let’s slam down phones and tear up every letter,
And build a silence that could bend a sword.

Let’s trample on our friendship, our potential.
Let’s blame each other, bitterly, for years.
Let’s call our good times false, inconsequential
And frame in gold the doubts, the threats, the tears.

Let’s shred our morals, lock away our manners.
Let’s cut our feelings off to spite our hearts.
Let’s host a carnival of hate, wave banners,
Parade our grudges through the streets, on carts.

Let’s not, while we are younger, braver, stronger
Than we will be again, fight hard to save
Lost hope.  Whichever one of us lives longer
Can wail ‘Too late’ beside the other’s grave.

If this is not our dream, our aspiration,
Plan A, hooray, what we would both prefer,
Then, in the name of grief and isolation,
Let us at least behave as if it were.

From Pessimism for Beginners (Carcanet Press, 2007).