Instructions

Walking in Moonlight

‘Dirty old town, dirty old town’ – the song reminds me
of our walk, with moonlight never so bright
on sullied scruffiness, the streets of home. My mind
skimmed forward to unbelievable old age,
to looking back. And here it is, just as I thought,
or nothing like it.

Here am I, having leapt
so many chasms, clawed back from some,
sauntered or struggled along so many roads,
stony, slushy, grassy-smooth, crazily steep,
finding nothing as unexpected as the loves
along the way, nothing as predictable
as tonight, this moonlight, this magical
sameness, this surprise, back again, everlasting.

Ruth Bidgood