Departures

With control I start the engine,

stammers of foresight flashing

like highbeams on a country road,

on hedgerows the future reflecting.

For now we leave in darkness,

in the shadow of the sun I will awake

alone and still with longing, it’s nothing

more than thoughts; so how can nothing ache,

even before we’ve left this driveway?

Departures-bound, our sounds of love

are wearied denials; I am not steering us

towards our months of grief.

A gear change, then I hold your hand again.

As long as this road is, it has an end;

Heathrow a double-edged guillotine and noose

- it brought my future and today takes my best friend.

Then it’s there in a blur of time, of colours

like sea on sand and stones on stones on earth

of dark iris pigmentation orbits

around mid-night candle-lit firsts.

It’s everything we hoped it wouldn’t be,

but everything that was inevitably this;

sitting side by side in each others’ arms,

tilted heads and the longest kiss.