Aubade, Ward E

1

Striped nurses
Slip silent into lighted tents
Whisper words within
Like clandestine lovers

2.

A Saxon burial-figure
I lie in bed, knees to chest,
but apart. Hands across heart
Poulenc’s Piano Concerto l
looping through my head.

3.

Where do they go to?
Where not go gentle?
Coughing, farting, retching,
Shuffling, into below-flight-deck
Neon light, airport air
Tinged with the smell of the Mahonia
From Chrostine’s garden.

4.

I want to be
In a dark warm place with you,
Where no-one can hear me say
‘I love you’. Where I would slip between
Your breath, where we would float,
Between the notes, beyond the Isle of Capri,
Where pain melts away
Into gentle day.

from Penny Arcade, Poems 1978-82. Published by Jonathan Cape 1983.