An early draft...
Not sure about the title...
Not sure about the poem!
All comments welcome!

Heart Trouble

Everywhere in the UK there are people
like us: confused when the phone rings
and then the voice just says, It’s me.
How are you? And there’s a pause. But it’s alright.
Like with drizzle the world cleanses itself
in such forgetful, such gentle ways.
And later you start talking to a young mum
when you hand back the toy her child’s dropped
and she says lots of things that don’t matter
except she’s glad to say them to someone
who smiles. Then maybe you stumble
into a hospital, a vast waiting room
that’s not for your appointment and full
where four students are playing Beethoven,
how they concentrate, how they don’t blink,
so focused on what they must do
and, like me, you sit in that somewhere else
for as long as it takes to return
to a world where whatever happens
is careful, makes sense, is always OK.

Bob Cooper