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Our Still Leaping Hearts

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Shooting through the greenery
I lovingly eye our reflections 
as they flicker in the glass
of a Bruges-bound train
Your fingers knit silently into mine
warm in your woozy dreaming

On a dirt track headed for Hanoi
behind me on the motor bike
cutting through a tall tapestry of trees
my heartbeat lost beneath the engine
Twisting the throttle so instinctively
as you steal a kiss over my shoulder

Diving in the turquoise waters
St Paul’s Bay, watched by a wedding parade
we swim off the forty-degree heat
fish darting between our toes
You push your wet hair behind your ear
as my fingers trace your calves

Spilling from a Kreuzberg club
The 6am sky a perfect throbbing blue
our eyes so wide and wondrous
we kick through the empty streets
back to our cheap hotel room
so alive and talkative

All those moments fog my mind
as we sit sofa-bound
for the hundredth night in a row
not going out tonight
Another weekend slips away
‘It’s too cold, we’re too old
for all of that now’

All those times we cracked up
so busy living and thoroughly loving
When kisses were endless
and our hearts always leaping
from one adventure to the next
not sitting still, not nearly dead

It’s not too cold, we’re not too old
for of all that, you know
I promise you, my love for you
it’s still young
We’re still young...

 

[2021]

memories

◄ Under The Old Whale Bones

The Faintest Farewell ►

Comments

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Tom

Fri 19th Nov 2021 14:26

Thank you Greg and Keith. I'm so pleased you got something out of this one. I wasn't entirely sure if it hung together or not, so that's really encouraging to hear.

And Greg, you're absolutely right and there's nothing wrong with taking it easy. I'd love to read your Bruges poem, do let me know what it's called (if it's here on WOL).

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Greg Freeman

Fri 19th Nov 2021 13:09

I've been on a Bruges-bound train, Tom, though never heading for Hanoi. I even wrote a poem about the Bruges trip, which ends, funnily enough, 'thinking it could be the last time we do something like this'. But we are considerably older than you guys, methinks. You're just having a breather!

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keith jeffries

Fri 19th Nov 2021 11:42

Tom,
One of the best poems I have read in a long time as it encapsulates emotions and places which all seem to interlock. Very well crafted.

Thank you for this
Keith

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Tom

Fri 19th Nov 2021 10:13

Greg, Stephen, Stephen and Holden - thanks for reading and thanks for the likes ?

Edit: and thank you Jennifer, Binte, Aisha and Keith too! :)

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