S.W.A.L.K.

Where did all the sighs go?
The love that would last forever?
The tears that stained the letters?
The everlasting? The undying?

The eternally yours? The initials
we wrote on the back of envelopes?
SWALK, OXO, PHTR, RLN, ILYE,
ICWTKY, or was it ICWTMLTY?

I forget so much. But I do remember
how the windows steamed up
in your mother’s car when we sat
together for hours with nowhere to go

and nobody around to disturb us.
Combe Dingle, Wotton-Under-Edge,
Weston-Super-Mare: these were our
favorite places, do you remember them?

Just being together was more than enough
to keep us happy. We don’t hold hands
anymore. It’s not something grown-ups do,
especially in front of the children or the late

night news. Nor do football games inspire
passion and send us into ecstasies the way
the white spot did as it lit up your mother’s
TV, with us alone…