SJ Fowler

{Benedict IX, elected Pope at the age of ten shocked

the sensibilities of a barbarous age}

to traipse about the Museum

without even the faint possibility of seeing her

her torch light is doused

she stayed but a month

she let me sleep at her feet but once

Oh Evgeniya Akhmadulina!

but back they sent her

to meditate on the indistinct

to cultivate the wastes

then they told me she was a spy

no lambblood to her name,

but she was one of the ones I loved.

just the thought of the London Aquarium

and the degenerate art Museum

it hurts my webbed redchest

my nocturnal appendix surgery

I miss her more than that organ!

Everything seems older and less colourful.

no Saint Fisher, no benefactor will read my lists

& pay off my debts, hand me on to the upper echelons

she left me amongst the brownfilm slashed;

her burning hair is shed & black about her green eyes.

life has become less promising,

and the people seem much older.