Style

This is something

I’ve been meaning to write down

ever since I gave up smoking:

I once worked in Capper Street

off London’s Tottenham Court Road

as a wholesaler’s warehouseman

One day

I was loading boxes into a parcel service van

when an old down-and-out limped past the entrance

in a raincoat the colour of an OHMS envelope.

I think he was wearing a trilby hat

“You wouldn’t have a cigarette, would you?”

he asked from the side of his mouth

without turning to face me

I reached into my jacket

and offered the man my last Rothmans

“No thanks,” he said,

“I only smoke Du Maurier.”

—0O0—