for John Levy
I re-read your book in the bath this morning
and shaving after I found myself looking,
paying attention, just as you describe
your father doing on page thirty-six.
Brian always wanted to write about shaving,
the formality and seductiveness of it,
the sensuous slow soap and scrape,
cold rinse, warm wipe and dry. I’ve never
thought about it before, just done it;
it’s strange how others see the world.
You make the ordinary something else,
instruct me how to look, consider, think.
© Rupert M Loydell