Will it always be thus
You in your turquoise top
Every time I browse a map
Just off the aeroplane
Memories are to rush in
In the deserted rowing boat
Reasons to avoid a return
On the starlit country estate
However innocent the motive
Into the taxi, out of the rain
That a part of me needs to exclude
Against the British Museum radiator
Refuses to deal with the truth
Take our birthday seats in the theatre
Prefers the delusions of youth
Drive all night, move closer together
Evades that time before this time
Dine in the restaurant by the quay
Those other times with other stories
Spread out on the sands and dunes
If I returned alone I could wallow
Walk barefoot at the waters edge
Write down a set of words
Watch Shakespeare at midnight
Of personal indefatigable thoughts
Ice cream at the sunset beach cafe
Gifts of guilt and exuberance
Open walks to Dartmoor's Tors
On the shifts of unsettled sands
Hand-held total eclipse of the sun
If I returned, with you or another
To the late night Battle of Flowers
I would have to steal away, as for
Nude bathing in Fuerteventura
Sneak out to let in the experiences
Trains through the Somerset Levels
Sneak in to let out the experiences
Of the past regurgitate, boil away
Stood outside Cornwall's Tate gallery
Inside my intrepid deceitful head, taking
Off from all those Jersey bound airports
From the Collection One Crow to a Tree - Love in Separate Houses available from Lulu