Earlies

Cakebrick Road in summer 1981
We shared a house and garden
At the height of all the bombing on the run
In busy, hazy London
Through T-shirt breezes walking home from work
County Kilburn sun
Weekends, we'd just wash away the dirt
Of busy, hazy London

The night grew cold
The Thames is old

Found that manners count for nothing
And it took a Welshman in his forties
Guinness elbows rested on a tabletop
The two of us on earlies
Three feet of snow fell on Walnut Road
Two feet trudged
Round the corner came
The sound of bad dreams

The flame is old
The Thames is cold

Cakebrick Road in summer 1981
We left a house and garden
All the corner boys
Best of friends