Leaving Belfast

 

Leaving Belfast

I remember you in Bookfinders

On university road

As you pulled out

One book to look at

And the full shelf

Collapsed on you.

 

It shames me now

I remember more

About your Scott Walker LPs

Scattered all over the floor

In a huge circle

Which you would

Constantly play

Over and over

If you were feeling down

And the Bee Gees

When you wanted to annoy me

Rather than what you

Living room looked like

 

Or your bedroom.

 

And even now you are gone

I remember you and Belfast

Been like warring lovers

Than respectful friends.

 

I remember you

Proclaiming you hated

Every bloody thing

About the place

When you moved

In with me

Before running back there

Only weeks later.

 

Leaving Belfast again

Now years later,

I doubt I could find

Where you once lived

Before you vanished.

 

Or the Crown bar

On great

Victoria street

.

 

Or the Front Page.

 

But remember instead

The promise of

Your scented kiss

At Belfast airport

When I nearly missed

My flight back.

 

Which now disappears

Into the clouds

Like memories

And beyond the coasts

Of past loves.

 

 

 

(NB. Leaving Belfast is also a poem

By Andrew Motion and the inspiration

For that came from reading his poem,

Although my poem is totally different)