In the Event
In the event of my absence (a sorry no-show!)
Don’t wait up.
I’m catching another train.
It’s leaving before midnight.
And anyway, I really wasn’t that eager to stay.
In the event I do arrive
Don’t sing those old familiar ditties I deplore.
I know I never told you but surely you must have known.
In the event, should it come to pass
We must not be too complacent or blasé.
Let’s not stifle our surprise.
It’s a wondrous thing:
The event
The happening
The sure thing.
It was meant to be, we can say, and yet
revel in astonishment and delight
that our secret doubts have been domesticated,
in the event,
itself