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‘My mother forbad us to walk backwards. That is how the dead walk, she would say. Where did she get this idea? Perhaps from a bad translation.’

1. If
If you see a tree in the cemetery,
no question but it's a yew.

So Ifs, on the edge of Caen, gives Yews—
like ‘yous’, the word we used

as children to count
true friends. And then

a bus goes by (bus is bus
unless car, a bus that travels far)

flashing Ifs—the end of the line
where there is no doubt.

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2. But
No question but it's a goal.
Or a department store

of large surface,
a wide floor—

canapés sail across it. Like
the boat—but a tub—

the Duc de Normandie,
that made a u-turn at

the English coast
and carried me back to you.