Two Deaths 

 

I often wondered where I would be

when the news reached me, 

if it reached me at all. At the table

one evening, clearing the dishes,

preparing to watch TV as in fact

I was last Sunday when I checked

my Facebook feed. In days gone by

I’d have got a call from your daughter

or son who may not even have needed

to look in your address book

for my phone number or ring

Directory Enquiries to give them

my details which I always wrote 

on the back of the envelope.

My letters, if you kept them,

they probably did not

when they emptied your house 

after you moved into the care home.

They may not have known who I was.

Now that you’ve gone I’m not sure

what to say except for the things 

I would have written - that I’d been to

the Proms, finally succumbed to COVID,

what do you think of the new 

prime minister? The family are all well, 

I hope yours are too. I wish I could

tell them now that I’m sorry for their loss.

I wonder how you would feel Jean

to know you'd been outlived 

by twelve days by the Queen.