Poem 429

Missed opportunity … depends whether you see the tea as an omen or not …

( I like final flailing veils, the stop/step/step – and the five separate ways in which the tea is less than satisfactory … )

The Tea Things (Bad Timing)

Looking back it seems
I was attracted to you like a cheap horoscope
  packed with sly generalities
anything specific I could have argued with
but there was nothing no blemishes no scars
in the great brown seriousness
   of your eyes
                             your faded bed quilt
beside the rainy window and all stupid Wellington
washed away
we should have hunched in then
against the weather
                                           made a shell

this morning on your street glancing up
there's a small storm of images sharp
as hail cutting me into tears
               cold so unbelievably cold
               for these last few days of November
final flailing veils of spring
in my face
I stop between step and step
arrested by this memory of your flat
        where you invite me for tea
        boil water in a pot
hunt hopelessly for any packets not made
of roses or blackcurrants
find a crusted sediment of sugar
in a jar
              mix up milk out of powder

              if I could only have managed
              to want you then
              tepid mug in front of the heater
wind shouldering rain
back up the window