Recycling with you

Having accumulated an absurd

amount of cardboard over Christmas, we

stuff the car with it and drive out to the

refuse and recycling centre. Unloading

beside you there, at the edge of the city,

where riotous gulls wheel and swoop across

a washed January sky, I’m suddenly

aware of my astounding fortune in

being the only man on earth whose life

includes an occasional visit to the tip

with you.