I knew Laura Dentt Stevens,

intimately perhaps, sharing

the same space

for a while, trading thoughts

and the ultimate fuck you

to the outside world

who thought we were

irrelevant students,

I was too old to have an opinion,

my thoughts immaterial,

unrelated to the hip and groovy

paid by the latest clothes and fashions;

she was, to my mind,

sarcastic, but fun, the kind

of girl who got the point

of existence, which was not

to exist,

or at least not to be an arse about it;

in my mind she took the rich

in, she came out

as a fully functional woman,

oh I loved her, she set the world afire

and in the short time that she lived

she made people listen

in a way that I could never manage;

here’s to you Laura Dentt Steven,

too short in life, two months

and died bravely

of the myocardial infarction of

the pseudonym.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016