For Dilip Sarkar MBE

You wear it so lightly, the knowledge
Those millions and millions of words
The pride and the passion of strangers
Those voices without you unheard
Your digging and diving for detail:
‘The facts of the matter are this
‘It wasn’t a garden of roses
‘It didn’t all end with a kiss.’

I turned to you. ‘Help, please, I’m drowning.
‘A Harvard? A Spitfire? A name?
‘I cannot remember if Dunkirk
‘Was a battle, a truce or a game.’
Your spirit was instant and kindly
For forty years steeped in the stuff
You’d gathered the pain and the pity
And nothing was ever enough.

I floundered and moaned. Then I rallied
For somewhere among all that plot
I came across Truth and her brother
And patience rewarded the blot
The ink and the stink and the trauma
Your knowledge stood stronger than steel
As three years pattered by you were steadfast
And never asked, ‘Where’s the reveal?’

So now while I’m getting my breath back
Re-arming myself for the fray
I know that your Pillar of Wisdom
Remains in tomorrow’s today.
Without you my Lark would have faltered
And died in her feathery nest
So let me acknowledge and thank you
For being the best of the best.

For my sine qua non of Flight of the Lark, with gratitude and love