Memory Guide

Poetry by Alan Hardy

We follow her

through murky streets,

obscured figures flitting by.

Treading on silent pavement slabs,

past dark buildings, and what lies inside them,

she points out routes she followed,

restaurants she selected,

corner tables she was seated at,

gripping menus eyes never strayed from.

The ill-lit warren she prowled

she can navigate still.

We keep her close.

She leads us to the main street,

its glare of many shops,

and masses of people, she hid in.

As we depart and re-cross streets,

and their interlocking grip on us,

in big cities’ lamp-post darkness,

we emerge from her past,

the journeys she made

with nobody by her side.

BIO: Alan Hardy has for many years run an English language school for foreign students (in UK). He’s been published in such magazines as Ink Sweat & Tears, The Candyman’s Trumpet, Envoi, Iota, Poetry Salzburg, The Interpreter’s House, Littoral, Orbis, South, Pulsar, Lothlorien, 100subtexts, Fixator, Chewers, Feversofthemind, Suburban Witchcraft and others. Poetry pamphlets Wasted Leaves (1996) and I Went with Her (2007). Connect with Alan on X and Facebook.