the desk bereft
was a tidy reproach

the stray paper clips 
could not have known that

this was a day of the world
all twenty four hours of it

that beyond the double glazing
every leaf had been washed clean

each vein was beaded
with brightness and the hills
shone with the light upon them

here the minutes passed like
water over dark stones  
into slow moving hours

and those who were left
attended to the important
business of their fingernails

it was put about that he had been 
bullied and he had been bullied

he had worn the cricket tie 
the Welshman had brought back from Lords
but he had had no summer to hope for

all his days had been 
just like all his days

he had said sex for the photographer
but his eyes had looked the other way