Wake up, open the window

I tell myself.

I do as told and turn my head.

My wife, my love asleep in another land

with her slight smile

she inhabits.

Darling, it is light but the dark is coming,

I whisper but never heard.

I hear my heart pounding.

The window scares as I open it.

The wind is howling and magpies sing somewhere

a song of chattering fear.

And no one is about.

I fear that the clouds will explode.

‘Can I wake her?’ I shout,

‘No’, I reply.

Love can be a bastard.

We must run somewhere!

No, no there is nowhere.

We are all destroying ourselves.

Oh children, oh loves,

laugh somewhere.

Only silence laughs.

The world is dying.

They are gone.

Remember!

What have we done to deserve such fear?

I close the window and rush to the bed

and shutter my eyes.

I feel her hot arms

and the silence of her legs.

She turns over

and I touch my wet face

and laugh my cry.