Bye for now

Your repeated use of this phrase
at the end of emails
convinced me that we had a future
until I noticed that BBC
newsreaders and weather forecasters
say it to sign themselves off
secure in the knowledge
that some percentage of the population
will still be there later on
even for the World Weatherview
at one o’clock in the morning
even if they’re dead in their armchairs
waiting to be discovered by the neighbours.

from Furniture (Picador, 2009), © Lorraine Mariner 2009, used by permission of the author and the publisher.

Lorraine Mariner in the Poetry Store

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