A quiet street,
a Georgian facade
concealing dentists and solicitors;
the little seat
where once two people sat
and watched the falling leaves
and ate their sandwiches,
dropping a word, a crumb
but mainly savouring
each other’s secret dream,
while the silence between
grew loud like the sea
with the untold tale of all that might have been.
Now I return again,
alone and in the rain,
to watch the leaves at play
and find what I may see,
but look around in vain
for crumbs of memory –
the sparrows have been here before
and carried them all away.
Only your eyes remain,
their gentle fire consuming metaphors.
Anthony Watts
Anthony Watts has been writing ‘seriously’ for about 40 years – he wrote ‘On King’s Square’ in 1972. He has four published collections and his poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Somerset Sound. Rural Somerset has been his home for most of his life and he has no plans to leave it. His main interests in life are poetry, music, thinking and messing about outdoors.
http://fireriverpoets.org.uk/poets/biog-anthony-watts