Why Brian Trimming? (Poetry)

Why dream about him —
a man I’ve not seen
in fifty-plus years?
It’s not as if I
knew him very well

this man who worked in
the same department
when I was just an
office junior
he far senior

Yet his face and name
popped up clear as day
in last night’s strange dream
featuring a pen
I’d found and he’d lost

How I imagined
the now older man
tracked him to a home
for the elderly
is puzzling me

Recalling the pains
I took to explain
our past connection
his eyes registered
no recognition