Colleague

Here is a thankyou. May it still be said?
– I cannot say, I thank you anyhow,
and with a whole heart now that you are dead.
My dear man, I thank your absence now.

Here is a thankyou. Will it still be heard?
– My lovely man, you hear it in my mind,
you who would see the soul, and hear the word,
and take the world’s way, and leave it behind.

Teachers together a year or two. Ah Ted,
I knew you little but I miss you now,
and though it never needed to be said –
my dear man, I thank you anyhow.