When I wake you up for morning tea

I always feel immensely fond – 

You’re drowsy and not quite yet beyond...

When you’re old

Revelations come thick and fast

But the bastards do not last...

I was to play Claudius the king

A National star the errant Dane,

Film star to be, and no plain Jane...

Sometimes everything is grace

Sunday evening after dinner

My love plays – talent’s in her...

Across the view the long wall stretches

Dark, but topped with lonely snow

Stark branches grasp a sky that’s low...

You feel beleaguered when you’re old

For what’s to come? Fuck all, you’d say

The last few sunsets slip away…

I can’t believe we’re here, he thought

It’s marvellous that we’re here

Through all the tears that love has brought...

There’s all the plays I never wrote

And all the parts I didn’t play

No screenplays either I must say...

I will remember you, you orange sky

West from the window of the train I watch

Amazed that in this latter age the touch...

I got down from the train at Kew

Crossed the road to catch the bus

To home, the very heart of us...