The Cafe On The Corner Poem by jim hogg

The jukebox in the corner played
To shadows sitting sipping tea
The light was low and you were there
Your collar open to the sea

We leaned across but never touched
Through some remembered wish or mist
Some northerly that left us hushed
And wet where yesterday had kissed


We didn't ever have to try
When I was you and you were me
Both amber lit beneath the sky
In salty spray thrown off the sea

Or slipping silently away
And maybe that's what scared me most
We'd meet somewhere as if ordained
Without a plan, along the coast


And all alone we'd whisper thoughts
That told us less than all we knew
For nonetheless we knew the odds
Were stacked against love coming through

The ferries went, the ferries came
Their frames of light in tiers that bled
Together on the broken waves
That washed where yesterday had led


Where yesterday had wished no more
Than all we couldn't hold to then
We leaned across to walk the shore
And traced us backwards with your pen

Through darkened halls and April rain
So close we seemed to be inside
Until we'd never touch again
Across the table by the tide

(chorus)
And all our history came round
Mars and Neptune took the floor
To dance us through our falling down
Mine to doubt and yours to Ivanhoe


25 06 09


(The Kiosk (rip) , Stranraer - circa 4.55pm, Wednesday, December 1972)