Crossroads

The traffic light changed from green to red

And there you were

Knowing me, grinning

At my stupefaction

Calling me by name

Running heavily across the traffic

Toward me as if a returning lover

At the climax of a movie

‘John’, you cried and only then

I knew you too

‘My God you look well,

What are we, fifty-five?’

(I play tennis oh, and I have a gym membership)

I head the corporation now you know

‘And smart in that suit;

But you were a postman

The last time I saw you?’

(I went to college, at night, after work)

Yes father's retired now

‘Where are you living now? Never,

How did you ever afford that?’

(Sixteen hour days and sacrifice)

I'll inherit the house, of course

‘And just back from Barbados

- A second honeymoon’

(I enjoyed our first, in Skeggie, just as much)

And the car and the Cretan Villa

Then your conversation evaporated

Like a plump dewdrop

Pricked by a sunbeam

Yes these were yours long ago

My patron, my king

And here where all roads meet

We will always measure the distance

And we shook hands

For the first time

The lights turned green again

You went west, I east

But what I didn’t tell you was

That I’d done it all for you