I Wonder If - Paul Smith

You’ve deep in another novel

I wish I was as committed as you

I wish all this was solvable

Do you still laugh at The New Yorker cartoons?

Searching for a meaning

That was hard to capture

I wonder if your nose is still cold?

Are you out there on the balcony

Cutting out another article to keep

Staring out at the skeleton factories?

A vague quote in a brand-new notebook

My drawing of Scott Walker pinned to your fridge

Wondering if you still love me

I know that you once said that you did

The doom held off

Long enough for another chapter

I wonder if your nose is still red?

Veins popping in indignation

At the hours that you keep

Further to our final conversation

When you were alone in your empty, half-sold flat

I would battle the drunks out on their Christmas do

Dressed in cheap costume, just to make it to you

I wonder if your nose is still cold?

Are you out there on the balcony?

Time to draw it out some more

Stinging nettles for a memory