Maudite

   
   Now I see that all that sort of thing is juvenile and silly, merely a reaction against insecurity and shame.  You as usual of course were the first to realize this, making yourself felt whenever I had been particularly rude or insincere.

     Thanks to you I have come to see a profound significance in relations I never dreamt of considering before, an old lady’s affection for a small boy, the Waterhouses and their retriever, the curious bond between Offal and Snig, the partners in the hardware shop on the front.  Even the close-ups on the films no longer disgust nor amuse me.  On the contrary they sometimes make me cry ; knowing you has made me understand.

      It’s getting late and I have to be up betimes in the morning.   You are so quiet these days that I get quite nervous, remove the dressing.  No, I am safe, you are still there.  The wireless this evening says that the frost is coming.  When it does, we know what to expect, don’t we?  But I am calm.  I can wait.  The surgeon was dead right.  Nothing will ever part us.  Good-night and God bless you, my dear.  

      Better burn this.
 

Rawlinson End: The Bonzo Dog Band (From Let's Make Up And Be Friendly) (Link)


Text From W.H. Auden, The Orators, 1932