I was street dove eyed
Another sleepless passenger
When the war between the lighthouse and the smog began.

Chimneys
dating back to Victorian times
Shipped their bakery smells to the salt and grease

The colossal banks of them
Victorious in their pursuit to have me step foot into
West Yorkshire's bell jar.

I scoured the trees for spider monkeys, clinging to the backs of their vampire boys
An alabastrine, dazzling climb

Which furthered my trek to the hardcastle crags;
The medieval houses cheering me on in their church pew rows.

Where the hill went up and up and up, so much that the bus was about to tip - on the edge of the world I was.

The twilight town, still green from September, and to think I was drafted to fight for the sea
When Hebden Bridge is where I want to be.

When the vastness of the train station and trouble with an umbrella cemented a lack of time
We rushed through the rain;
London annoying me to the point I threw myself into the corner shop
Grabbed my pocky without gazing up at the lanterns
And sweated it out on the tube.

One chance to see Chinatown gone
But we had pizza to eat
An ice rink not to go to as we settled for a record fair
Those time bomb nights metamorphosed into bedroom discos, a carefreeness I only understood once seeing you jump up and down in the midst of like minded strangers.

Before that came the Hebden murderers
A song told through the eyes of ducks
Sisters who met on the internet
Shivering to Frankenstein till the ******* night, ******* coffee
Worst 3am of my life crying down the balcony once not feeling your presence.

I’ll never forget the house of Frida Kahlo, it’s guitar
And the champagne drank out of a pop star’s shoe
Chinatown’s gone but we’ll be there again, even if it takes another year and a bit
Because I never shared the feeling of having a sister until I met you.

Opals turned sideways
Was the shape of her eyes
Though one sagged, the other in a dream
A cluster of halo lids came a muse it seems.

Her hair unraveled
In wisps of barley, freckles of snow
“I inhabit cloud nine”
Said the strawberry mouth, glossy with plump plum glow.

She mumbles us a lullaby
Of what life means, of apple pies.
Made up words that make sense to her but they lose it.
They stop her in her tracks.

I want to speak up
Though it’s all too heavy.
It’s heavy for me while she’s light as plumes, drifting and drifting
There’s something about her that’s loopy.

The woman is from another time,
You can’t make friends with her.
This conversation skyrockets on
Until I’m in the corridor
And I can’t see her raincoat anymore.

Woven with yellow, the rivers blues, a lack of haleness suffused with daffodils
Sends the sailors head over heels
As she floods the room with hailing screams.

Watch out, watch out, watch out I say, I’m too anxious to talk today.
I’m numb all the time and so is she - I think she sees this and approaches me.

She is there for a second
And then she’s the sunset
Here to shine the day goodbye without articulating it
Like mist

A trick of settling upon the hebden moors
Only to manoeuvre her own country shores.
I step in
And the world is no more.