Poem 365

Story from my first year at Waikato … eerie experience …

Late Night Campus Crossing

As I came down the hill in the dark
she passed in front of me
then after a moment him behind
walking in her tracks
                                      
bent to their own business
they didn't see me
                                      I fell in
and like a procession
we crossed the field

she never looked back
he was absolutely silent just fifteen
feet behind her

an elbow of moon flexed
our breath went back and up like trains
in the cold and we went up the slope
and marched by the lake
ducks parked under the sleeping jetty

she went left up to the buildings
he followed
                          each crunch
of his feet on the gravel
synchronised to hers

I turned right but watched
as she slid round a pillar
                                                    breasted the balcony
looking down under the capsule
of fluorescent light

he came silently up behind her
put his chin on her shoulder

they stared at me