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Elaine Feinstein
The poet Elaine Feinstein Photograph: V. Carew Hunt
The poet Elaine Feinstein Photograph: V. Carew Hunt

The Saturday poem: Last Muse

This article is more than 7 years old

by Elaine Feinstein

A bossy ghost I work for: she
who only lives in words on the page
and has no thoughts I do not give her.

She has no flesh, and will not age.
Why should I care
if she survives when I am gone?

And yet I do, though well advised
most of us fall into the bag
of the forgotten or despised –

knowing if traces do remain
they will not make us
live again – still carry on.

From The Clinic, Memory by Elaine Feinstein (Carcanet, £14.99). To order a copy for £12.74 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846.

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