Dumplings & Departures/ So Longs & Sympathies by Gwil James Thomas

Dumplings & Departures/So Longs & Sympathies

On my last day living in London
I devoured delicious dumplings in Chinatown,
picked up some records from Paco Mus
and
visited my old drinking buddy Sean
for one last marathon boozy afternoon.

Sean and I drank,
shot the shit,
joked,
threw darts
and
decided to get tattoos down the road –
but they told us they were booked up,
so we
returned to the pub –
where Sean then told me that
he was going to divorce his wife.

I’d seen it coming and maybe
it was for the best,
but he’d never imagined that
d i v o r c e
would be on his mind.

But what use was a mind
if you couldn’t change it?
Everything happens for a reason,
or so they say and in his case I heard
that it eventually did.

I grabbed my gym bag of belongings,
finished my drink,
hugged Sean
and
jumped on the tube to Victoria –
another face in the crowds,
once again
making my way through
the pushing and shoving.

There was a dealer
out for my blood somewhere in London –
not to mention the irate bosses
that’d now have to shovel their own shit,
come my no show on Monday.

But I didn’t feel any more failure
upon leaving London,
than I had success at arriving there.

I got on the bus and found
the last empty seat at the back –
as a putrid smell accompanied
the out of order toilet,
over my shoulder.

Everything happens for a reason, right?
I’d thought –
as the bus shuddered to life
and I was
gone.

Gwil James Thomas lives in the historically infamous city of Bristol, England. His debut poetry collection Gwil Vs Machine is available from paperandink. His prose was recently featured in the Hand Job Zine anthology. hi-vispress.com. He was also once a member of the short lived Spanish/British band Irreparables. He is currently trimming the fat on his second novel and putting together his second short story collection.

3 Replies to “Dumplings & Departures/ So Longs & Sympathies by Gwil James Thomas”

  1. Hi Vincent,

    Sorry this is so late! Thanks for the interest amigo. I never got round to getting a facebook and it feels a little late in the game to change sides. Never say never though. However, I do plan on getting a site up and running this year! So watch this space.

    All the best mate,
    Gwil

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