i hope you're alright, Jim.
you were in town for some music festival
and our paths crossed at a graveyard,
of all places.
later on, my friend would
make fun of me to his wife
'Mary, alex went pub crawling
with a 70-year-old Scot'
but she, being French, would not laugh
'oh? was it fun?'
it was, i said, only.
i'll make it back to Edinburgh one day
go pub crawling again
walk up to Arthur's Seat
maybe even find a crestfallen soul
and buy them a few pints,
pay it forward.
though your wife had passed
'three years ago', you said
you did not lose heart
the way some of us have.
i have questions, Jim,
but i know we won't meet again -
so i can only thank you in thought
and hope you are still alive somewhere,
and life's worth the graveyards
we need to fill.