Radiance

Don’t drift away without a parting glass
we’ve had these years of radiance
we used to glow
They’ll never understand our radiance
our dandy moments in Finsbury Park
after dark
We had our codes like swordsmen, they never failed
what was the colour of the hair
of the dog
Was it green or brown or yellow or was it white
in this indifferent December light
behind these shades, these walls
Why did it always have to be a little too much
you never had enough
the windows were covered always shut
the wall paper ragged in an ochre room
Our nights they never ended, we never fell
those fairies came from Bohemia
with radiance
We’d lost our keys, the reasons, in the snow
was someone whispering inside the walls
I saw you fade away