09 February 2025

#9 - Seven Ages: Lover

 

Andy Bennett, Waveney Terrace, UEA ca. 1995
h/t to Caroline Pollard for the photo


A portrait of a man not fully grown –

discovered in a loft and brought to light:

a leather jacket, Yankee hat, and bright

eyes, nonchalant to facing the unknown.

He wants to love, yet still needs to be shown

that common solipsistic oversight –

the plague of every amorous neophyte –

to have a care for hearts that aren’t his own.

 

At that age, breaking hearts was just a game

more fun than football (I played better, too).

The fug of booze and time obscures the names,

remorseful verse rewrites the billets-doux.

Quiescent will exists to make amends,

the hope on which society depends.

 

AWB


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