Callback Humour

A little preamble to this poem. 

I wrote it in response to an album of music by my friend Ric Neale. The album - 'Parting Ways' - deals with grief and loss, and who we become when someone we love is no longer part of our lives. Despite the subject matter, the album is not bleak or depressing. Rather, it is shot through with humour and warmth, exploring the memories that live with us and define us in the aftermath of loss, and celebrating the joy of knowing these people in the first place.

You can find the album here, and I massively recommend giving it your time. After you've read my poem, of course. 

Callback Humour

I had to go away

But I left myself behind

Hiding, in plain sight

An absence shot through every day

Like a papercutting, revealing nothing,

Until the background falls away

I let my shadow burn and cut

Into all the places that I stood

I’ve been doing this for years

Making patterns in the world around you

Silhouettes that curve and carve an epitaph

For when I’m no longer here

I wanted some small way to keep on holding

Your hand

With mine

For you to hear my voice

In the spaces and the 

Silences

That I leave behind

So I’ve been weaving threads and ribbons into 

The little moments of our lives

Leaving a million associations

Setting up punchlines and 

Unfinished rhymes

Hoping my bad impressions

Will continue to make you smile, 

When you come across

The genuine article

You’ll hear my cadence

Somewhere in their voice

We coined a thousand catchphrases

Like we were in our own show

But there was only ever one viewer

Just you, in the future

Letting endless repeats 

Of your favourite moments play

Bad jokes and callback humour

As the real me fades away

I was just doing my best dance for you

Making shapes

And currents in the air

That you can feel, and hold

And move to the music you’ll still hear

When I’m no longer there

A picture of us, etched into your days

Wearing grooves through 

Beats and repetition

Trying to glow bright, so my afterimage

Can flicker forever in your field of vision

And I’ll be with you longer

And hold your gaze better

Than a face staring out from

A thousand photographs

I’ll be with you as long

As you remember

There was a boy

A while ago

Who loved to make you laugh