Woken by it, I tried explaining to her that sometimes in order
to make a noise downstairs that late you had to be alive –
you had to be breathing to open a bottle of rioja to let it
breathe too, and a corkscrew caught on the edge of this
porcelain pot will make a momentary din at around midnight.

What I didn’t mention were the many silent disasters over
the years. Whilst she slept through all of these, there was
that time I managed to divert the bear – it had intruded
as far as the living room – back out to the garden without
a smash or a growl, though it then mauled dead our dog, and
the following day I ended up announcing him missing, joining
in the despair and tears. I almost felt just now like confessing
but who would believe someone starting to drink at that time
of night – using a corkscrew on a metal cap, almost quietly?

# # #

Mike Ferguson’s most recent poetry collection is ‘Precarious Real’ [Maquette Press, 2106]. A retired English teacher, he taught creative writing to students for 30 years and co-authored the education text ‘Writing Workshops’ [Cambridge University Press, 2015].