times now gone took me and all my ink with them
I shall employ some puppet to see for me
and a bottle of wine in my pocket through dark weather
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 21 September 1668
The speaker feels like someone whose moment has passed. The title, "Has-been," says as much, and the opening lines make it concrete: "times now gone took me / and all my ink with them." Time hasn't just moved on without the speaker; it has carried off their ability to write, with the ink standing…
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