Nearer

rain is falling under sodium lights
the municipal toilet roof is bathed in gold
up station street the tarmac shines and little rivers
writhe and coil along the roadside gutters
 
it’s late   the traffic light in broken pieces
scatters across the deserted lane
in amber, red, red and amber, green
in all the houses darkness slowly deepens
 
in this town on a night like this   my heart
glitters     each footfall takes me nearer
to your bed  and to the dark where I will
lie with you this little time   I thought
 
it could not be like this  but I was wrong
walking on light and water    coming home

Janet Sutherland

first published in the Frogmore Papers 73 Spring 2009, ISSN 0956-0106
also in collection, Hangman’s Acre, 2009, Shearsman Books,
ISBN 978-1-84861-074-3