Little Losses

When we used to whisper
Dark and secret things to one another
I promised to love you
Always, everywhere, with everything I was and had,
Entirely yours yours yours
Anywhere you went, anywhere
My love
Always, always
Everywhere.
I had no need for
Paris
Love me in the industrial places of the world
I’d say
Love me in the grey parts
In the faded peeling dim
Our love shines too bright for
Venice
Our love deserves

Arncliffe Billingly Cottingham Drub
Emmotland Filey Grewelthorpe Hull
Ingleton Jaw-Hill Knaresborough Lund
Micklebring Nafferton Oxenhope Paull
Queensbury Rotherham Saddleworth Thorpe
Uckerby Wigglesworth Yockenthwaite York

Even Bridlington?
You said
Even Whitby?
And I said
Oh my darling, I would fucking adore you in Whitby
If we were in Whitby
Winged mythical beasties would appear in the sky
Mermaids would be spotted in the bay
Minor deities would run naked through the town
The moon would grow large
And hairy chested men would stop in the street and howl in its pale light
Women would bare their breasts and bellies and dance wildly,
Soles and souls connected to the pulse of the earth.
That’s what would happen if we went to Whitby
My love.

And you said
Blimey
I had no idea that such things could happen in Yorkshire at all
But I think we should go there
Immediately.
I love you
You said
I love you
And I loved me too.
The me-that-morning that found
Not Jerusalem
But something hot and gorgeous
In the dampest part of
England