My Mausoleum

after a cartoon by Tom Gauld

is a teensy-weensy bookshop

no wider than its own front door.

Always has a queue of eager readers

entering one at a time.      They may feel

themselves too close for comfort.

But find my suggestions

are more than worth the proximity.

 

Or so I have been told.

 

It would be impolite to say

otherwise. For this is England,

where all is said     and done     and dusted.

So few shelves, so many tongues

to hold.      Yet each book chosen means

no-one goes empty-handed.

When my time comes, please seal me there

 

asleep in this uproar of language.

 


vi. 2025

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