The pearlescent shirt buttons
The frameless spectacles
The mop of permed auburn hair
The clothes hung on the back of the door
The moth
Also out there, further than
The reflection
The darkness
The emptiness
The void
The distance
I cannot welcome you in
Neither you
Nor your friend
It isn’t that sort of bedroom
It isn’t that kind of night
Even if once it might have been
Also I cannot welcome you in
Because now there are more of you
Because now you are many
It isn’t that sort of night
It isn’t that kind of party
Also the police have asked us to tone it down
Happenstance in Heptonstall
Poems Started at Lumb Bank
Arvon 2018