Gary Poole

Lyrics

Warm Company

I met her in the puzzle room, she was working on a scene
A thousand tiny pieces of a place where she’d once been
She was as still as a statue, as pensive as a bird
I just sat down beside her, and didn’t say a word

I picked up one of the pieces, a branch of a tree
I was painfully aware this was presumptuous of me
I moved the piece around and then slid it into place
She slowly turned toward me with a calm and gentle face

I’m Irene
I’m John
And we silently kept working as the afternoon crept on
Then she got up, and brushed her skirt, I thought the moment might be gone
But as she reached the door she said, “It was nice to meet you, John”

The next day I went to lunch and found my assigned seat
She was at another table and our eyes didn’t meet
She was caught up in some laughter with a kind of lively bunch
I just tried to just act normal and focus on my lunch

Then later in the quiet of the mid afternoon
I decided to take a wander up to the puzzle room
And there she was with her sweater and her cane
She said I wondered if you’d be back again

I said I just liked jigsaws and she said that she did too
She wasn’t very good, she said, but it was something to do
So we worked on that picture of somewhere on the Seine
And she wondered out loud if she would see that place again

Warm company, that’s what she gives to me
Warm company, such a lovely place to be
Sometimes we talk for hours, sometimes there’s not a word
I just hope that I’m warm company for her

One day I got a visit from my daughter and her girls
They’d all just been out shopping with their new jeans and their curls
It was hugs all around as I got slowly to my feet
I said there was someone I wanted them to meet
Hi, I’m Irene.

I said we’d been working on this puzzle and it was finally filling in
And sometimes we’d just talk about the places where we’d been
My daughter caught my eye and gave me a wink
And I wondered exactly what she now might think

Warm company

Some mornings when I wake up and stare out at the dawn
I worry this will be the day I find that Irene’s gone
When I tell her this she laughs and says that’s such a waste of time
Let’s get back to the puzzle and be thankful that I’m

Warm Company
© Gary Poole 2019