It is often said that in my speech the word “actually” is over-used,

But for me it affirms the sentence.

Actually I sometimes feel a stranger in a child-like land.

Actually I often eat alone because I have returned

A lesser love than I have received.

Actually being a cowardly sort of lion

I had decided to check out permanently

And drive to that unknowable country.

Actually she told me she would rather if I stayed.

Actually that saved a life and led to other things.

So now I hear that at a time of deep and most private wounding

My voice is one of those she says has helped her stay alive.

I would say, in a vapid-sounding British way,

That her being alive is very important to me. Actually.