When we slept under palm trees

It was in Antigua that I asked you to marry me
it was in Barbados that you said no.
In Corfu we decided never to see each other again
but we met back in Derby in the house where we both live.
We had always been happy in England
our flat had a comfort about it
gardening kept us busy, but after going on
holiday we could never sustain the unrealistic high.

I would have been happier without them
just cups of tea and sex after Newsnight.
Nothing could compete with the night we spent naked in a jungle in Kenya
or having sex on the beaches of Lisbon.
Now we just visit your sister in Manchester
and friends from University days in Norwich
and it's like oceans
and palm trees
and shagging on quicksand
never happened. When we're at your mother in law's in Rotherham
it's hard to imagine we were once in Saint Tropez
that we spent that weekend in Thailand
underneath the stars.

Our flat is full of vermin
we will move one day, I tell myself
find a map of the work, mark a spot with an X
where you an me can be happy. I want to quit my job and live in a world
of oceans and zebras.