Stories retold themselves inside his head,
closed narratives with no external reference,
one-sided dialogues, leisurely pursued,
theories without fear of contradiction.
He would imagine sympathetic listeners
patiently attending to his views,
spared from all competition, that unseemly
clamour of a general conversation.
Asked for opinions, though, his mind snapped shut,
hid in a corner; often too diffident
to pass on values that he cared about,
too self-aware to seem enthusiastic.
Sometimes it was as if to think the thought
was to have written it; or, having written,
to have published. He wondered at replies
not coming to those messages he never sent.
.
Tony Lucas
Picture Rupert Loydell
,