Ode to the guy I always see on my way to work

by Mel George

I trail you to work every day,
Then back again all of the way,
But we’ve never broken

The barriers and spoken;

I rather think we never may.

I’m used to the back of your hair,

And that brown coat that you always wear.

Do you go to work?

Or just hang out and lurk?

If you live here, I’ve not worked out where.

I see you more often than friends

Whom I only meet at the weekends,

So it seems quite a shame
That I don't know your name

And I feel like we should make amends.

I wonder if you passed me by,

Would you nod to me or catch my eye?

The truth is, you're British -

You’d just become skittish

If one day I stopped to say ‘hi’.

Mel George has changed jobs and now no longer stalks this guy every morning. They retained a British silence until the very end.