The Long And The Short Of It Is Poem by Thomas Edward Puleston Rickarby

The long and the short of it is we were caught in that trick of a space, your foot hard on the brake, as we plunged into that impossible gap and almost made it to safety.

I can't stop seeing the time on your watch as we smashed the Polo in the back of his Porsche with such damn great force he flew straight out onto the pavement.

In the time that elapsed I recalled the facts of the scene where you stopped me and spoke with such grace I was caught in that trick of a space between going and staying.

Now the officer comes to the heart of the fuss as I look in your face and I long to return to that trick of a space, the place we were born from and made in.