U. A. Fanthorpe - Casehistory: Alison (head injury) lyrics

(She looks at her photograph) I would like to have known My husband's wife, my mother's only daughter. A bright girl she was. Enmeshed in comforting Fat, I wonder at her delicate angles. Her autocratic knee Like a Degas dancer's Adjusts to the observer with an airy poise That now lugs me upstairs Hardly. Her face, broken By nothing sharper than smiles, holds in its smiles What I have forgotten. She knows my father's dead And grieves for it, and smiles. she has digested Mourning. Her smile shows it. I, who need reminding Every morning, shall never get over what i do not remember. Consistency matters. I should like to keep faith with her lack of faith, But forget her reasons. Proud of this younger self, I a**ert her achievements, her A levels, Her job with a future. Poor clever girl! I know, For all my damaged brain , something she doesn't: I am her future. A bright girl she was.