John Upton: Seagulls

Seagulls

Anton Chekhov was a connoisseur of brothels—

you hear unusual things at U3A,

the Soviet archives have been coughing up

real blood, says Helen over morning coffee as

the women come and go talking of—no,

that was another week. Christina says

over the snappy chatter that Chekhov did

eventually get married at fortyone,

she read it on the internet, his leading

lady, but far too late, within three years

he died, it’s all on Wikipedia. Kevin says,

Tuberculosis killed him, it’s amazing,

he kept denying it, he must have known,

he was a doctor. Ruth adds, Died in Germany,

they shipped him back to Moscow chilled inside

a refrigerated train-car of fresh oysters,

he was an oyster connoisseur, adored them.

Mary’s thinking, Chekhov would have loved

that story; but all the chatter and ephemera

utterly lose the largeness of a man.

John Upton