eavesdropping on my grandfather's ex-lover at his funeral
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It was raining as we lowered him into the ground, my
clothes were dark but eyes were dry as he went slowly down,
when the the vicar said the prayers I realised I didn't care.
I didn't know this man alive, why should a cry now he's hellbound?

Now back when I was young and foolish
I went out with this old man -
back then, he too was young (and handsome),
charming smile and massive hands.

She was wearing pink and shouting in a whisper to two men
I didn't recognise. Paid me no notice, then again we
all were strangers. Granddad was a lonely ranger.
I shuffled closer to this woman clucking like a gossip hen

I saw him singing in a bar, but I
used his tongue for different means.
He never talked that much, but what
he did instead was fine by me

Well this was something new, this frollicking
old lady and my grandfather had been a thing?
Beneath his visage, holding love was something I knew nothing of,
a bitter judging man. I didn't know he used to sing

We'd go for walks in summer fields,
I'd lay my head upon his chest
while he would stroke my hair and
kiss my neck, his hands beneath my dress

So intimately intimate she painted pictures of a world
that felt so alien - she systematically unfurled the
bandages from his life wounds, the flesh of truth came shining through.
Almost sweet imagining him infatuated with this girl

On one of these encounters
under stars we were quite intertwined,
he cried another lady's name and
I knew this love was only mine

The nonchalance with which she broke this classic tale was
something to admire - her relishing each heartless detail,
showing us he was an apathetic man. An apathetic man,
emotionless and uncaring. She finished off her tale

That was when I left him, trembling,
followed only by the moon.
He'd taken over me and left me
voiceless, hurt, emotions strewn -

Her yarn was faltering and so she upped and left those
two men standing, suited black, heads still bowed with respect.
I never knew my granddad, all the same I'd often wondered;
now I know I wish that I could go back and forget.