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
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.
