Menschkeit by Ross Thompson

for Stewart McCullough

A friend could not help touching the buttons
on a remote control. While watching films,
he absentmindedly brushed his fingers
across the raised grid of coloured rubber
digits as if strumming an unstrung harp.

All the while, his thumbs trundled on the studs
like a laundry trolley over hotel
carpet or sledge runners on a fresh fall
of snow, the rhythmic duffing like the keys
of a piano stuffed with plump pillows.

Now, when lounging in memory rooms or waiting
in ghostlit hallways, I think of my same friend,
long since gone to work in London, and find
myself listening close for the sound of buttons
being gently pressed in the white noise of Lego
settling in its tub, a crow tapping the window
or stiletto heels clipping on chequerboard tiles.

I have tried but have never found the exact sound.

I have not seen him in too long. I miss him.

………………..

Ross Thompson is a writer from Bangor, Northern Ireland. His debut poetry collection Threading The Light is published by Dedalus Press. His work has appeared on television, radio, short films and in a wide range of publications. Most recently, he wrote and curated A Silent War, a collaborative audio response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is currently working on several projects including editing a second full-length book of poems.