#101 Kevin Brophy 'Conversation City'

We are eating Japanese tofu and talking about Roman pizzas.

We agree it’s true that poetry can take you to palaces and prisons.

We are wearing black, the day is wearing grey, and somewhere

music plays hits from the 1970s, that other century, we say.

She is speaking of her mother slowly losing mind and memory,

she is speaking of talking to her about this loss, and her mother

wanting to have it done, to come out the other side unknowing

like an angel in the gorgeous air hovering beyond all care.

We are eating Italian pasta and talking of visiting India again.

We discuss the meaning of liberty, and is it always personal,

and must it mean the right to carry arms, and what do judges think

about when they think and why, precisely, is their prose impenetrable.

It seems we are all becoming orphans now. We sit a little closer,

agree that time is chasing up its debts. Passwords bamboozle us

and ‘pay wave’ looks too much like a magician’s pass. Comedians,

though, are funnier than ever. Jokes are more profound than poems.