Road to Banff

The Road to Banff

by R. Eric Swanepoel

(First published in New Writing from the North, Issue 2, CAC
Publications, 19 Berryden Road, Aberdeen, Scotland)

Three times now, this week -
Along the road to Banff:
To a ceilidh (without you)
To a concert (without you)
Now to a reading (without you).

Outside the coach myriad greens compete,
Summer leaves scream: LIFE!
But summer leaves, indeed,
And autumn decay will set in.

In winter all will be dead, stark, bare.
Thin snow will etch the fields,
And the cloud-scudded skies will be as they were,
Just six months ago,
When you asked me
Along the road to Banff,
And we kissed.