I had not seen her for five years
perhaps longer but I was reluctant to look back
and work out which year I had lived in Hannover
and count up with my fingers to 2006.
She had been my landlady
and I had been her lodger
her babysitter
her talking point when friends came round.
At first we spoke in English
she spoke it well because she had lived in Canada.
I was wary of speaking German
my trousers always bulged with a pocket dictionary.
She took me to the Wolfsburg planetarium
she took me to see a ska band play in a pub
across the road.
she cooked for me every night
until I found my own friends.
I still send her children birthday cards
I still look at the photographs
and when I saw her in Norwich city centre I thought
I must have been mistaken.
I called her name and when she turned
my face must have said "God you look so old.
she didn't introduce me to the man she was with
and Moritz was playing with a Darth Vader doll
I guess he doesn't remember me.
you did not mention that Jasper was not there
in the same way that you never mentioned
when I got muddled up with my vocabulary
and when I struggled to conjugate verbs.
