A Poem – November 2012


November 2012

Pulling up after the wedding reception

they see her, their neighbor,

standing in the street.

She is looking, she says,

for a lift to her home in London.

‘Hazel,’ they tell her,

‘you live here in this house.’

The door is open.

They take her in

and see she has packed a bag,

(if a jumper and a biscuit count as packing)

Oh Hazel,

It is 35 years since you left London

to live, as you said, ‘in the shires’.

but she is still

within you

the grammar school girl

from Loughborough Junction

kissing sailors and dancing

In Trafalgar Square.

It is VE day

and the rest of the century

Is yours.