A City Break

We have eaten and laughed, we have chatted and dreamed
In the city of art and culture.
Hot pie for lunch, surrounded by sculpture.
African masks in a basement cafe
In the city of culture and art.

we missed the bridge I wanted to see.
We found another, steel silver-grey
In the city of many rivers.
Then out to a village, carven graves,
Blackish, bestrewn by Autumn trees
Near the water-park where we saw the kestrel
Hovering over the woodland clearing
Not far from the city on the rivers.

They live between frying and the sky.
Instead of chicken we freely range
In the city of food and drink.
Meatballs, spaghetti, carbonara.
Away in a poster-filled, dim-lit bar
He drinks beer and she drinks Laphroaig
And I drink golden, refreshing cider
In the city of fed and drunk.

I go to bed on the hard futon
While the crowds in the street below walk on
In the city that never sleeps.
They laugh and shout till one or two.
At three I get up and make some tea.
Round five the delivery vans arrive
In the city that never sleeps.

And now as I wander in night-time breeze
And street-lights gleam on the linden trees,
I think of your crimson cityscape
And you on your leaf-strewn fire-escape
And the narrow back alley with many doors
And I thank the Lord I'll be back for more
In the city of my heart.