Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

                    I used to think
        That if you should die before me
              I would leave this place
                        Immediately
      Buy a ticket for the first plane out
                    And not look back
             For fear of seeing nothing
                     But your absence
                    And my loneliness
               In the passing crowds

                      But now I know
              That love would have me
                       Linger here
                Revisiting the places
                  Where we have been
                Watching for a flaw
                 In the flow of time
              Looking for some place
                  That Fate has missed
             Where we might meet again

                  Autumn in Manhattan
         The leaves falling past the windows
                    Of the Rose Cafe
                  By Washington Square
              I would wait for you there
                            Every day
                With two cups of coffee
                  On the marble table
              And my eyes upon the door

                        I used to think
                That if death came for you
           I would have to leave your memory
                       With this city
                 If I wished to live again
           But now the streets have told me
                  That you would always be
                       More real than I
                And I would be the spectre
                       Of the cafe window
         The homeless man who cannot leave
                        His grieving ground