my 11 second love

for the first time,
the “london tube” had a chance to be
the words that got told to my grandchildren,
children, family and friends
as the opening scene of a once-was dream turned
long, but beautiful story.
the moral of which, was to
manhandle life’s risks
or you may just miss,
what your mother and i have found.

i think you saw me see you..
in fact i’m sure,
you saw me see you…
(hindsight is the only good sight i’ve ever had)
because u smiled.
blocking out the apple in my pocket
i replayed your glance
back to back,
over and over,
until it became a look,
evolving into a gaze,
then into a lover’s longing
stare.
i held your brief smile in my mind’s third eye and aged it
to better see what you’d look like
when i told some,
off-the-cuff humourism
in thirty years time.
i memorised the title of the book you were holding,
so the next time we’d meet,
i’d comment with casual surprise, on what a coincidence it was
and hope that somehow we’d end up on the same page.
i dunno if i’ll ever know what happened next,
we must have had an argument..probably over something silly, like i’d lost your bookmark, on spilled tea on the bed.
but instead of making up, you got moody instead!
you gathered your stuff in a rush and prepared to get up, and suddenly it was,

“Next stop, King’s X”

at which you got off...
those impudent doors closed, before I chose this king’s X road
leaving
cold perspex ‘gainst my face
and precious breath meant for
the back of your neck
unfelt.

such a shame,
the backs of our children’s heads would have been
entrancing.