26 DECEMBER 1958, Page 18

Jones

Hands swung his small damp sister out of bed.

He wakened howling. His mother shook her head. 'Oo's old enough to sleep alone,' she said.

Limb over limb, lover and lady tread.

Some years of mornings found the lady fled. `I'm old enough to sleep alone,' he said.

And gloried in his rigid legs, that bled Night upon dreaming night to bone. Stone read : 'Jones, old enough to sleep alone, now dead.'

JOHN COLEMAN