Distant light of stars
Reach through the darkness tonight
Show me once more love

Love is a crossing
A leap across the river
Will you be my bridge?

The eyes flicker
In mutual understanding

The breath quickens
With the suddenness of it all

The mind doubts
For the briefest of moments

Then the walls tumble
As the heart takes over

She said " I love you".

He boarded the train
A human wreck
Bleak Sunday morning
At Chester station

The morning after
The night before
Self inflicted terror
Of the most reckless kind

Barely functioning
She offered him kindness
His perfect dream
A bubblegum blonde

'Your dead proper gorgeous'
He sure didn't feel it
Where was she
Twelve hours ago

A cocktail of sickness
Headache and hell
Meets panacea of perfume
Hoop earrings and paint

Now years have long past
The pain well forgotten
Yet still I remember
My Manchester girl.

Like fresh spring daffodil
Bursting through frozen ground
You appeared by my side
In the summer of '11

On a rainy afternoon
As we listened to the Marxists
And those who merely warned
The end was near at hand

You asked me for the shelter
Of my newly bought umbrella
I absorbed your pale blonde hair
And eyes of powder blue

An Imam raved and ranted
You must have been nineteen
I struggled with my conscience
Every time you smiled

If the end then truly came
As the speakers said it would
I'd have kissed you on the spot
My luck was not that strong

So I watched you walk away
Despite an implied offer
Turned to face the Marxists
Left my heart with you.

I do not know you
Yet - I dream
At night I see your face
In the pale moon

As I walk the streets
The town feels cold
I feel your hand
Give warmth to mine

By the Manchester Ship Canal
I picture our meeting
The smile on your lips
Lust in my eyes

A kiss below the streetlamp
A ***** in the underpass
You look at the bridge
I look at your face

The train pulls in
I wake from my daydream
You alight at the station
I drown in my guilt.

Summer zephyrs cool
Ice-creams held in children’s hands
Melting shapes and forms