As It Were

As it were. You did not want to
be there. But you came –
I thought that nights like this
might re-ignite a flame.
Yet your eyes burned:
‘We have played with fire before’.
Cigarette light falters.
Finishes autumn. Night blooms,
a temporary death.
Prometheus. I grieve.

(From the collection Rain At Watford Junction (2012), David Stewart)

David Stewart lives in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Current pre-occupations are environmental journalism and the life and works of Ted Hughes.