Bio
Laurence Morris is an academic librarian and a Fellow of the UK's Royal Geographical Society. He lives in the north of England and is an active mountaineer, his poetry exploring the relationships between people and places.
Laurence Morris
The man in the lake
He drank a bottle of whisky,
walked out into the freezing water
and never had to go to work again.
Washed up one sober weekday morning,
the office wanted to know all about
the drunken dead man in the lake.
Was he a crook or a gambler?
A failure, an addict, or some other loser?
Just who was he, and what made him do it,
this human flotsam who had once
fought and loved and laughed like us.
He was a friend was all I that said,
words enough for anyone found dead.