Sartorial Company 10.09.2009 Poem by Margaret Alice

With all role-players and stakeholders gone on
the Literature thing, literature-less me is staring
forlorn in the distance, an act I have acquired
and mastered at the Emergency Room, feeling
listless

I have Griffin’s Castle by Jenny Nimmo ready as
there is no-one to talk to, June always delighted
by translations that drive me to tears, Hermien
loves repetitive tasks that take me years, cor-
respondents are gone

There must be bubonic plague somewhere, maybe
swine flu took its toll on my few acquaintance, I am
still struggling with sore throat and blocked nose,
family members are fed up with life and the strife
to keep the body alive

Hubby grumbles because I take my work troubles
home, the hellish temperature does not interest
him in his industrially cooled office, my guru says
while I feel like this I can forget finding a friend -
I hang on to my book with religious fervour

The only refuge for my purgatorial soul, wish I had
more sartorial company, but it is not to be…


Jenny Nimmo “Griffin’s Castle” Methuen
Children’s Books,1994