Anonymous poem found under a bed
Sitting at my desk this morning, faced with a whole heap of serious-minded tasks, I — predictably — got distracted from doing any of them by a little poem I wrote years ago and found earlier today. Quite happy with it, I typed it out and saved it in a folder, just in case I ever want to look at it again.
This incident reminded me of another little poem that was happened upon — though this one I didn’t write. It was found under a bed, on a scrap of paper, in some student digs in Leeds. My sister came across this forlorn little moment, captured and abandoned in the corner of a room by an unknown hand. The fact that the poem had been abandoned adds greater poignancy to it, and my sister and I have always loved it. So I thought I’d share it — and maybe, one day, the original author will come across it and reclaim it as hers.
Goodbye
He said
Goodbye.
I shuffled
My feet
And kept a close
Watch on my shoes.
He was talking
I was listening
But he probably
Thought I was
Not
Because I never
Even lifted my
Head.
I didn’t want him
To see
The mess mascara
Makes when it
Runs.
