she didn't want a funeral - get it?

(you lawyers can be so myopic)

she had no friends - and get this too:

it's not pathetic!

for fifty years we were in awe

of this eclectic elegant  loner

an aesthete who set up a Knightsbridge shop -

sold everything to do it -but kept her bike -

and in the 3 day week for heaven's sake

and when she started business

she met all sorts - how she handled 'class'-

a Chelsea Lady customer obsessing

on a nose job provoked the wry thought

'now she'll have to fix the real prob'

a duchess  bewailing the world added

'as I was only saying to my maid this morning'-

left staff with subdued smiles dawning

in between she read for England-

theatre hopping-weeks in France- an opera buff-

a rock for Placido in London-

biking stuff round to Diana at Buck House-

she found  the antics of the rich hilarious

and absorbing while in her small neat flat

she planned to vote for Corbyn

an only child, with family gone -

no TV - but always - softly- Radio 3-

she checked the world vicariously

some chilling comments stay:

'it's called experience and it's very

expensive' she'd say and recall

her Grandmother's words to her when

she flounced as a hormoned teenager:

'my dear girl it's when you realise how little

other people notice you'

a pensive afternoon

the trees on the South Bank look

so spare and graceful

and walking home -

I think I see her turn and

raise her hand-a stoic single figure

in a taxi on the Strand