Tôpher Mills
Never in Adlestrop
(with a nod to E.T and D.A.)
No. Not in Adlestrop, nor Winkleigh, Bude
or Husbands Bosworth - besides the name
hardly matters. Nor did I languish in June heat.
Simple, I stood too early, on the empty platform.
The wrong train came in slowly and stopped
next to the opposite platform. From a window
a very, very pretty girl leaned out.
She smiled. I smiled. She waved. I waved.
She poked her tongue out. I pulled a funny face.
She laughed. I danced a jig, goosestepped
and failed, chaotically, to do a cartwheel.
The train started to move out. I blew a kiss.
She lifted her T-shirt, flashed her belly button,
then disappeared into the carriage and out of my life.
I jumped off the platform, went clean over the rails,
hurled open the train door, lept in and shouted
“I LOVE YOU!” to a pot-bellied man with a whippet.
Frantically I searched as the train gathered speed.
Then, glancing out of the window, I saw her waiting
on the station's platform, wind drifting her hair.
As I was rapidly carried away, I know not where,
I watched her fade to a distant speck
while the whippet surreptitiously sniffed my leg.
Page(s) 12
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