Sebastian Schloessingk

     LOOKING BOTH WAYS

On the front of The Culture section
(a Sunday) was Leonard Cohen looking
good. And deep and sufficient in
the face and green-eyed at the age
of 80 or so. Tipped forward - in his
case allowably - the Trilby
he favours. (As do stars and rockers
ageing around the world specially

for interview: with Pork Pie, black, dun
Trilby - denoting still cool - they face down
the grotesque, not me baby.) And
beneath was printed, not quite him,
I intend to live forever.
The Culture's back cover monopolized
meanwhile by Phil Collins looking bad,
pottering-smiley and repulsive with age.

Next to him was printed more rueful than wise
NOT DEAD YET, not 100%
rescued by the framed (line-encoffined)
pay-off pun LIVE! (at the RAH).
The one remotely youth thing was
a vague insert of grizzled chin stubble
which had to do, didn’t. However
L.Cohen’s photo as it transpired

may not have been super-recent
and that statement of intent, whether his
or tweak of journo, provoked matters
in the purest fashion. He, of the two
the evergreen, a few weeks on (it happened
this time to the whole of him) was dead.
He passed as ‘ugly’ in his pull-no-
punch lyrics, more like photogenic.