Good morning, my little ones

Jean-Paul Sartre
died or at least news of it
reached me while in the bath after
a weekend in Suffolk
visiting The Otter Trust and some relatives
near Bury St Edmunds
who weren't in.
It was the era of just popping in, just
passing by, incomp-
rehensible now

I was filthy, really
needed that bath. Back then we
took one a week whether we needed
them or not and I always
had the radio on

I had not read him then - still
haven't although I tried La
Nausée once - but knew him as a legendary
ref. slash fig. from my
random teenage reading

And was not yet aware that JP was
tormented by visions of crabs (and lobsters)
everywhere he went
after taking mescaline in 1935
which later inspired
elements of his philosophical writing and plays

They followed him down the street
they sat quietly by his desk
crustacean, hallucination

Until finally he willed them away
because they bored him