parting images
over a (not steaming) mug of
coffee in the Buffet at Euston Station
longing for English summers
and when one came
meeting your ghosts at busstops and on pavements
so the clouds came
where are the printed cotton
frocks
and chasing butterflies
only queues at Cashpoint tills on Saturdays
and crowded buses
and again, splashes of sun, and
again, the clouds
hangovers
from nights that lonely hearts
convene
festivities
like yesterday's quite gone
and afternoons like having been
there before
children haunt the open lawns
under tower blocks of Ponders
End, and perhaps the Docklands
almost forgotten them. But
they're there, growing up with
time
and wishing and wishing
and the days are muddled into
one another
not knowing what it is, what
it's supposed to be
trying to sleeep
over it, but the
dreams keep getting confused
with reality
and still you do not rest buried
Sept 1985