Black Coffee

Happy Memories

I can remember that meeting under the willow tree
Where lovers had inscribed their names into the bark
Rough hearts and arrows and initials which lasted
For an eternity
And probably outlasted the very love itself
Which at the time seemed like it would last forever
When in fact was more transient than a rose petal.

You in your doc martens and skinny jeans
And a cigarette hanging from your lips
Your dog wagging his tail in excitement as he spied
Me coming out of the hedgerows
Ruffled and gasping for breath and red faced.
"Half dead?" you always said.
And I would laugh and shake my head, and pull out
My asthma pump and take a minute to recover.

You kissing me tentatively on the cheek
As was customary, and then taking me gently
And giving me a hug as the dog jumped up and down with
Glee, and you telling him "Down boy", with me laughing
And stooping down to take him in my arms
Like a fragile energetic baby eager to please
And begging for milk.

We had talked of Shakespeare and Donne sat on the grass
And sex and trivial pursuits, ambition- anything that caught our eye
With the bay and the boats riding out into the distance
And the gorge where people threw themselves off in their cars
For happier memories to embrace them,
And you had rolled your eyes and slapped me on the head
With your Kerrang! magazine, and told me to get a life
When I had stated the beauty of bardmanship and love
And then you had stated the beauty of life
And how you never understood why people would want it to end.

Ironic that though, that days later I found you swinging like
A pendulum from that willow tree
Smiling serenely like a clown with your make-up jagged across your face
And the noose cutting into your neck like barbed wire
No blood, or breathe, or tears, or life
Just a lump of dead meat, filling up the void
Where somebody I used to love, used to be.