We turn our faces to each other again
and note where the universe falls around
our lines and pores; half-remember
late night tales told in the kitchens,
where we sat, where I drank the last of the wine;
note how time curves the light
around each other's centre,
how it returns...
and reflect,
when waves cycle and tides compress,
how our blood pumps in a single heart,
counting 'one, one, one...'

Silence, save the wind and waves.
You reach to the far coast and draw a cross
in the sand as far as your arm will stretch,
and feel a kick and bring your hand back to your belly.
I reach under your rainproof coat and fleece
and feel you shrink and shiver as my cold hand
clasps yours, grows warmth,
holds you close as you protest and exclaim
that it's nothing,

just another phantom,
the same as years ago.

-+-+-

Version 1

Down the craggy road to the sea
wend we, my love,
my love, when we
were children
we lay on our sides
in the sand and saw
the sky, sea and land
and grassy cliffs
stretch off to vanishing point
- like the pie charts
we learnt at school
with no circumference -
we saw the endless universe
converge upon the distance.

We turn our faces to each other again
and note where the universe falls around
our lines and pores; half-remember
late night tales told in the kitchens,
where we sat, where I drank the last of the wine;
note how time curves the light
around each other's centre,
how it returns...
and reflect,
when waves cycle and tides compress,
how our blood pumps in a single heart,
counting 'one, one, one...'

Will I turn to sky, and you to sea?
Will we storm the wrecks of history
and hold the sunken ships and satellites,
and trace the poles of stars and comet tails?

Silence, save the wind and waves.
You reach to the far coast and draw a cross
in the sand as far as your arm will stretch,
and feel a kick and bring your hand back to your belly.
I reach under your rainproof coat and fleece
and feel you shrink and shiver as my cold hand
clasps yours, grows warmth,
holds you close as you protest and exclaim
that it's nothing,

just another phantom,
the same as years ago.