Nookless?

Inspiration: The film Elegy, with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, poignant scene where the old Kingsley character gives a lame excuse for not showing up at the graduation party for the Cruz character. Could probably do with a more imaginitive title.


Elegy

An old man backed out of a social engagement,
unceremoniously, transparently, ineptly, awkwardly.
He was a player in a bittersweet love story, all the
sweeter for its bitter undertow and yes there was
a gap, an age, an atrium, a gaping wound, so very
buried and forgotten, closed up but not healed over;
so closed it was open as open can be, thus the event
he was supposed to attend, the crux of the story,
was an attack on his buried wound, for you see there
would have been nowhere to hide and lick said wound,
not a single nook for the old dog to skulk to; even if one
there had been, his role in the engagement, would have
connotation, ties, he would have been tied, in front of
gawkers, free, open, smiles an attack on his solitude,
ghastly politeness assaulting his senses, exposing the
wound that noone can see, all this, had he gone.