Photo by Francisco Suarez on Unsplash

 Since new year, I’ve taken to walking these empty streets
 At 3am. So quiet, you’d think a nuclear device had wiped out
 All the people, left the buildings intact.
 Stopped twice by the cops. ‘Can we inquire…’
 You could tell they were English. No less the servants
 Of a repressive state. Told them I was thinking
 They didn’t know what to make of that.
 ‘Are you within 5 ,miles of your home?’ Sir’
 Sir, as still not sure if I was hoi polloi or an eccentric
 Who knew the boss. Decided not to take the chance. So I left.
 I continued the to-and-fro engendered in these empty streets.
 It was, conformist people blew our dreams away
 Before I could even say ‘I love you so’.
 Along these empty streets the scattered
 Snow in the icy air tells me, again, you’re not there.
 I took you into my dreams before I even knew
 You existed and all the twists of life bounded
 Me to you. But who can see the end of life
 In this storm of wind and cold and being young?
 Do not tell me that the stars still shine
 They are just God’s joke at our expense.
 A life is lent, not given, borrowed on a whim
 From accident, we hoped that serendipity
 Was mistress of our intent. But luck and chance
 Conspired to come too late and fate took over.
 As usual a cold body in a deep lake means love came
 Too late to recreate those blue-remembered hills of home.