Waiting in the Rain

By luigi_pagano

Thu, 17 Aug 2017
  • 840 reads
2 comments
 
I stand in the drizzle
trying to solve the riddle
of your absence.
Perhaps I was late
or you never came
but I waited for you
just the same
for an hour or more
at the bus stop
next to the Rex,
where we saw Michael Caine’s
Educating Rita
and Rattigan’s  
French without tears.
 
But the theatre we knew
is sadly no more
and it is such a shame
that only the name remains.
For a few years now
it has been a shoe shop
still retaining
the Art Deco façade
though it’s thoroughly
covered in grime.
I shall be there again
at the same time tomorrow
and perhaps this time
we won’t have any rain.
 
© Luigi Pagano 2017
Certificate U
Poem
Mutevoli pensieri
Love

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

Reminded me of the old Sandie Shaw song, 'Girl Don't Come'.  Past and present merge, and so sad that the old facade has been neglected!  They were beautiful buildings.

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

They were indeed beautiful buildings, Jane.
Every time I pass our local defunct Rex I am reminded of the hours of pleasure it offered when it still functioned as a theatre as well as a cinema. It was often visited by renowned acting touring companies who performed plays by Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan, Joe Orton et al. thus eliminating the need to travel to the West End of London to enjoy those shows.
The song ‘Singing in the rain’, which was the basis for my title, was my starting point for this poem and Sandie Shaw, though very popular in my younger days, did not figure in my imagined scenario.

Luigi x