#wineter

Let us fall then, you and I—

fall into each other

like cliches into their soft sleep

let us utter those words we utter 

measure out the hours with kleenex 

and whispered crime

we will be fine, we will be fine

though the year forgets to take its time

and outside the world yields

and in the fields they stoop

and the midday mud it creeps

into the kitchen

No—you needn’t lie to me

I know it in the adulterous leaves, in the sound

of clockwork trains and how it changes

as iron shrinks and cools

and shrieks and whines

and wines

and how they go from white to red

there on high street where the people say

lets seek the tables in the sun

let the shadows be forlorn

and the lawn

and how it glisters in the night

and the wind—that old foe

replaces Benaud on the radio

and we lose an hour of light

and we all become smokers

and the chimneys agree—

no, you needn’t lie to me

for just now I see Northcote

pausing outside my window

to don her scarlett scarf

I see her laugh

I see her ready her bones for the winter—