CHANCE MEETING

as I came up
and she came down

the escalators
in the Underground

I and my
ex-lover

I thought how
in some long ago time

with such delight
we would have kissed

to have discovered
each other  

she not seeing me
sneezing into a small hanky

ravished
by that season's flu

and how I longed
to comfort her

hold her as I would
in days gone by

but those our days
had faded from us

and I came up
and she came down

I and my
ex-lover

how could our love
have been

lost to us
through angry words

us suddenly
not knowing one another

I Orpheus
to her Eurydice

blinded by tears
as she

went out of
my life yet again

and I came up
and she came down

I and my
ex-lover