We sit across the table from you with our beers and we want to be attentive but we’ve gone someplace else… out in the open, left the gate swinging, what did I say, what did I just say? and we startle like deer caught in the car lights, we dodge, we zig zag, we do that maddening thing of running ahead of the car, we shake our antlers, the forest rising, sorry we say, and what was that last thing …? and now we’re exposed, caught out on a wild cliff edge, wind buffeting our flanks, and it doesn’t matter, you say, and we say, yes , oh yes it does matter, we’re here we’re listening, wife, husband, lover, friend, neighbour, we have ears, we are here, …but our minds are wandering, we’re hoofing the road to someplace else, until, you’re bloody hopeless, until beer is tipped over us, until we shake our heads in disbelief as rain comes pouring down.