Saturday 17 November 2012

I Saw Steve Ellard

I Saw Steve Ellard

You don’t have to believe me
if you don’t want to,
but I saw Steve Ellard,
who is also known as Doctor Ellard,
following a misunderstanding
in the Pathology Department
where we both worked
some years ago.

It was along Victoria Avenue, 
near the museum.
I was walking to work 
and Steve Ellard was heading
in the opposite direction,
towards the high street.

We acknowledged one another
in that cursory way that men do.

When he had gone past
I paused to retrieve my
‘Eye-Spy Book of People Who Live in Southend’
from my rucksack
and checked the box denoting  
that I had seen Steve Ellard.

Then I retrieved
one of my other
‘Eye-Spy’ books
that is to do with birds
and recorded that
on the same morning
I had also seen a seagull and a pigeon.

Where was Steve Ellard going
at that fateful hour,
during which our paths crossed?

That knowledge is forbidden.

You do not know.

You cannot know.