Waiting For Love

'One raindrop for every broken heart,' he thought.

He waited for two hours

Half in the shop, getting wetter by the minute.

He meant to go several times

Set off down the street purposefully

As if he had just finished a book

But forgetting how it ended

Had to go back to the light of the doorway.

He looked at his watch again

A raindrop blurred the figures

And wiped away time.

The street darkened, emptied and quietened.

The shopkeeper turned everything off, locked up

And said goodnight.

A moth that had been trying to get in

Lost his reason for living,

It wandered off, was splashed by the first car

That came along, and drowned.

He watched it float down a drain.

'You look like a drowned moth yourself,' she said.

'Come on before you catch your death.'

He followed her through the city

To a small flat above a shop.

'Get those clothes off, I'll put the kettle on,

You'll find some more in the bedroom,' she said.

He was half dressed when she appeared,

'I'll put these on the radiators, come by the fire

And have some tea. Do you takes sugar?'

They stared into the gas fire and he thought he saw a flame.

'Don't misunderstand me,' he said, 'You really are very kind,

I am grateful but I don't know why you are going to all

This trouble, you see I was waiting for my wife.'

'That's all right,' she said, 'Don't worry, I was looking

For my husband, drink your tea before it goes cold.'