Rainfall

Scattering like melting rain

Through moorlands of my memory

A windwashed hill

A black-tan streak

A car-coat, but no hat

And a sheep ate your sandwich

Red legs on a biscuit thief

Ginger pigs sultana-eyed

Lucky bags for lucky boys

Six bar blues and giving over

And a baby boy who never grew old

Black-tan swerving in the field

Stories from a wooden box

”Are you Polish?” In the playground

Ancient cars with ancient holes

And black-tan ate the butter

Cupboard doors that talked at night

Jokes that no-one understood

Aliens and plastic planes

Christmas in a wardrobe drawer

And Tony hid his Cheat cards in the toilet

Drama days and drama nights

Playing up and acting out

Skinny Liz sang whisky songs

Peaches, but without the cream

And Michael Croft said yes

London summer, dogs of war

King was dead and jester crowned

Rhyming couplets on the Tube

Riots run for Caesar’s ghost

And John Reid watched our rehearsal

Love affair like holding breath

Friendships paused for curve-ball plans

Language learned in stifling slumber

Playing twins as last hurrah

Lover lost for new horizons

Cigarettes and alcohol

Limbo living, saints and sinners

Futures found in England’s dreaming

And childhood melting like the rain