We Should Be In Love

The strange places I wake up
dank bedrooms, mouldy stairwells
always hoping to be by your side
I am alone, or much worse
making pathetic, transparent excuses
when we should be in love

You’re off chasing some pretty model
around the backstreets of Shoreditch
photographing graveyards
painting your nails green
not thinking of me
when we should be in love

When it all goes wrong
I’ll still be the one…

I met you at a summer party
you seemed afraid to talk to me at first
I smiled and said ‘I don’t bite, you know’
you purred ‘I only like the ones that bite’
O beauty, why do you do this to me
when we should be in love

And to the city you chase your prey
I lie in my bed, my grave
six feet beneath the sheets
unappealing, yet constant and surprising
waiting patiently for you
when we should be in love

When it all goes wrong
I’ll still be the one…

Why must you be drawn to the bad ones
they look like cartoon characters
but “shit always gets too real”
and they crush your heart with steel toecaps
here, I persist in my grounded daydreams
and we should be in love

Don’t you want someone who knows how to love
someone with experience of longevity
who can love you from afar and up close
melt you with their lust, drown you in their trust
sit silently absorbing
the beauty of your complexity
O, we should be in love

I’m still the one…

[2010]

I was not the one. Thanks for reading.

If you fancy it, pop on a playlist of some of my recent poems on Soundcloud…