Just a Few Lines

 

To accompany this year’s Christmas card -

I think you would have liked the design.

It’s as well you didn’t manage to write 

to thank me again for the hand cream

I sent you for your birthday, as you

may not have received my reply.

We couldn’t find it amongst your things -

did you take it with you to Cumberland Grange?

 

Your orchids seem to like it on my windowsills,

three in the lounge and one in the bedroom.

My two are now in my office. That purple vase

I’ve placed on a piano stool, the Chinese

floor vase is in the hall, as it was in yours.

I hope you’d approve of the framed 

taxidermy moth hanging in the bathroom,

faux roses on my bedroom bookcase.

 

I’m not writing this with your Kingsley pen

or his rollerball with Lindley Fabritech

engraved on its case, though I’ve put new

refills in them both. Your square tin I’ve 

used to make a cake from Knightshayes Court -

a recipe not in your National Trust book.

I didn’t come across a CD of carols, though

I’ll listen to many on your Sony radio.

 

There’s more I could say about your 

Catherine Holm fruit bowl, your cracker jar

with one stale oatcake left inside,

the little teapot and his Leica binoculars.

But I think you would get bored up there.

I will break off now where normally

I’d say I trust you are well, and 

wish you all the best for the coming year.