Nowadays I don't make new friends,
I merely remain civil and polite
when I am offered good services
in shops, and on the buses I go on
using my retirees bus pass, where I
wonder why mothers encourage
their children to call me 'Mister'.
The upside is that I am now cured
of imitations of friendships, online,
a place that feels to me like it is
an abandoned shopping centre
where ghosts of former real people
meet together to forget who they were.
