When she has gone you go into town.
You have learnt the places where the lonely go,
You know their habits, their acts of indifference practised so efficiently.
You have learnt how those who are hardly children
Can be most open, how the most obviously sensual
Tire you with questions; you have learnt.
How inside them all
Terror is waiting.
At certain times the galleries close; in certain areas the supermarkets fill with strangers.
At certain times the bars swell with gossip, then people tire and look around.
Like one from another place and time
You’ve stepped through this ritual knowing
How on each face the promises are hollow,
How scarce any spontaneous greetings.
When she has gone you go into town.
But in no other face can you trace her,
In other bodies can be found only an echo of her.
You know the places where the lonely go,
You know their habits, their acts of indifference practised so efficiently.