Deductive

Everybody has one –
a friend whose life planet tilted
more summer, less winter
promotion,
inheritance,
lottery luck –
rehearsal is over. Cinderella has the part – permanently.
Nothing will change,
they promise.
Footmen and maids welcome, always – never forgotten.

For Stephen the past was inconvenient
inconveniently downmarket
inconveniently inhabited by almost bohemians
not losers, but …..
station wanted to abandon – jettison.

Loyalty had disquiet
eviction too brutal.
Compromise has an idea
phone calls accepted : messages unreturned
the diary willing, but the pencil preemptive
for that day,
that week, 
that event.
It formed slowly – it took six months
after two years he sighed to an acquaintance, I never call him.