Geoffrey One Summer Afternoon 2024.

The park is busy with families

playing or watching the birds

on the duckpond

or just sitting

enjoying the sunshine.

Geoffrey sits on a bench,

his walking frame beside him,

smoking a cigarette.

Since his wife's death

he often comes here to reflect.

He likes watching people

enjoying themselves,

the young having fun.

Times goes so quick,

he muses,

age catches up.

He spent most of his adult life

working in London,

sometimes being sent abroad.

His wife knew nothing

about what he did.

She thought he was a manager

of some London firm;

knew nothing

about the secret work.

The Soviet Union

and the Warsaw Pact

were gone now,

but then they the enemy

with threats to the West.

Now it was a different enemy

as far as he could tell.

Those were busy days,

now he did little,

just spent time alone,

listening to music or reading books,

or just sitting

listening to the wind's moan.