Toast
Ken (now Kenneth) shrugs. He can’t
have his liver ripped out after all
without his reading glasses.
I have Alzheimer’s.
Those marshes. I know.
Nigel (already regrettable) shares
a name with – let’s leave it at that.
Sends new guidelines, flow charts,
an email that made me want to
sing, one damp November day.
You with your date-stamped monikers
and decency. The Bobs, the Winifreds,
Peggys, Marys, Erics, Joyces, Sylvias.
Here’s to each and every one of you,
the Nigels and the Kens.
Carolyn Oulton is Director of the International Centre for Victorian Women Writers at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is project lead for https://kent-maps.online/ in collaboration with JSTOR Labs. Her most recent collection is Accidental Fruit(Worple).