86. Learning Curve

An age ago, mid-March, when we could say
“that Chinese bug…shame about Italy…”,
the Cheltenham Festival was on the line.
So Laurence Robertson, Tewkesbury’s MP,
deplores the damage cancelling would bring.
He doesn’t mention he’d receive four grand
in hospitality. It goes ahead.

In May, Robertson’s father, eighty-nine,
is fighting for his life. By June, he’s dead.
He couldn’t say goodbye, a memory
of failure that will haunt him every day.
Cummings is in the garden, rabbiting
how tough it was. Not hard to understand
why Robertson should say he must resign.