From a Train Window



Once, in a golden sunlit evening,
I looked out the window of a Piccadilly line train
To see, beyond the large hedge at the end of the bowling green,
a young couple making love.

The boy was around 20. His girlfriend, perhaps slightly younger,
Sitting on top of him with her skirt around her waist.
An attractive Asian girl with long black hair and delicate white knickers.

Perhaps I should have called the police on my mobile.
Perhaps I should have been angry.
Contacted the council and complained about the misuse of public space.

But all I could feel was jealousy.
Wishing I was 20 again, with a pretty Asian girl astride me,
Feeling the grass on my back and the sun on my brow,
Rather than sitting in a tube train, in a tight suit,
And not a pair of white knickers in sight.