Poem of the Week - ‘Weighing the Present’ by Michael Laskey

I didn’t believe it for a minute 
but turning the corner at the lights 
saw him waiting on the opposite pavement 
outside A1 Discounts to cross. 

Though I didn’t believe it for a moment 
I knew it was him by the set 
of his shoulders and head, that physique 
and the all but forgotten lift 
of my heart at the sight of him. 

For an instant he was alive
or I had died, though I knew
neither could be true and pressed on

to the post office past my friend
with the present that needed weighing,
more or less knowing nothing
was impossible, even heaven.

Moving and, I think, pretty much universally relatable, this week’s Poem of the Week is the title poem of Micheal Laskey’s fifth full-length collection Weighing the Present (Smith Doorstop, 2014).