When We Parted - Joan Raleigh

When we parted I watched you drive away
into the maelstrom of morning traffic
early on this shimmering summer’s day.
Last night, as each hour raced into the next
you kissed me with a cruel finality
that I, still unaware in the neon glare
of our hotel rendezvous, naively
returned your Judas ‘coup de grace’, to be
proof of my lover’s perspicuity.

Now, in the turbid haze of the station
I see you on the platform, waiting
for a train that will unrelentingly
take you a thousand miles from me.
Pitiless, your case at your feet, pristine
in the grit. A square symbol of evermore.

Joan Raleigh