Two poems in memory of Mick Imlah

1.
‘Hardy and Housman lived round here,’
I said, slumped in an armchair in your flat.
‘Compared to those two, we’re small beer —
Hardy and Housman, geniuses crowned here!
No blue plaques for us, who’ve gone to ground here…
We’re pygmies, compared to giants like that,
Hardy and Housman, who lived round here,’
I said; slumped.