Requiem For A Comic Showcase

Britain's most avuncular writer/director
is genuinely upset to hear
about the closure of my favourite funny-book store.
Westminster council
(who are currently digging up the road outside)
kindly decided to put the rent up by an ice cold 50%.
For the purposes of an improvisation exercise,
Britain's most avuncular writer/director
asks me to think of someone I know fairly well.
Someone I know well enough to base a characterization on.
I choose a friend of mine
who once used to work at the funny-book store in question.
Britain's most avuncular writer/director leaves the room.
Outside, the council continue to dig up the road.
And it occurs to me,
alone with the sound of the pneumatic drill,
that the friend I'm thinking of isn't the only one
who once used to work at the funny-book store in question.
Now there is only "used to".
"Used to" wins out.