Poem 3

Attending a wedding in my early twenties, encountering the ‘friend’ of the young woman who years before had kindly initiated me into the mysteries in the back seat of a car on FA Cup final night …

… the hypocrisies of a small town …

I Met Your Friend

Dance with me she said
at the tail end of the wedding
the bride and groom already gone
an hour

she said I'm married now
to a smart man 
                            a man with brains

when I asked
she told me you went to Aussie
years ago
that knowing you
you were on the Cross by now
or dead

listen she said you're smart
like my husband
you don't need
that kind of trouble

smart 
           yeah
I was always that I said
and walked out into the car park
sleeved ice off the windscreen
thinking

               don't be dead