The Apology of Brutus

Today I mourned a friend.
I had lost a friend.


I had lost him and placed adverts in the newspapers,
On shop windows- (the picture I have of him is the only one of me with my smile lit up)
Nobody had seen him.

I searched in the mortuary- but no grave bore his name
I threw over tombstones and tore at the grass. He was not there

I searched for him night and low,
High and day….stumbling in confusion.
I cried because I had lost him. My friend.
And his absence is as powerful
As his presence once was.


I searched in the foggy mist of my memory
…he was still safe in there (tucked away snugly in a scrapbook)
I searched for him in his usual chair…he was still there

I searched for him in my heart… and found him gone
He must have got up in haste and forgotten to close the door behind him…
Because it’s awfully cold now that he’s gone