a tiny lull in the conversation

sorrow slips in camouflaged

after all the gossip anecdotal smudges:

celebrity bullfighters chocolate

frogs people who prefer to block

out the world with a pea in an

ear or two the quality of her

pesto sauce an absence of

cravats in harrods (didn't

dodi wear the last

one in the tunnel of love);

no one says a word about

the recently departed there are

no vacant chairs alfresco the

idea of a walk along the beach

collapses as they pack up

the credit cards the table

lingers in the narrow air