Harry’s House / by Alex Williamson

i.

Sad music colours memory

Not his house

Not our house either

But my house though

Not really my house

This house of ghosts

Just a man wandering

From room to room

Considering the vacancy

How did it happen

A man in a room

Considering the vacancy

Taking bread from the bin

Whisky from the bottle

Woke up one morning

With the urge for going

I stay up too late

Writing things like this

Waiting for a knock at the door

ii.

Epidemic of unhappiness

When I wanted to bring

Some joy to your life

I’d bring home pop music

Not flowers flowers die

I’d bring home pop music

We’d play it loud and dance

In the kitchen with the kids

Taylor Swift Harry Styles

Dua Lipa Little Mix

Pop music is evergreen

Now I can’t hear those songs

Sad music colours memory

I mean I can hear them

But I can’t hear them

Just the flowering silence

Distilling karmic rhythms

The sound you make

When you’re not here

Is the universe unravelling

iii.

Just the flowering silence

A lizard licks its eye

In the desert

You had my heart

From the beginning

When a lyric or melody

Returns to you

Like someone breezing back

Into your life

What is the word for this

Epidemic of unhappiness

Car wreck on a grass verge

No more arguments

Or silent treatment

I catch myself talking to myself

I won’t let you talk

To me like that

You had my heart

You have it still

What is the word for this