East Enders Wives

We met by chance on the row riverside
Our salt fire danced as our tea leaves dried
She hatched our plans in the atmospheric tide
Said, "Let's give up, sacrifice next lent"
(Well that joke's long since been spent)

So as the fool on the bagpipes played
We kept cool in the parasol shade
Your thumb on my page at my tender age
East enders wives

Then hidden in the boxthorn vine
We grew old as the foxtail pine
Sheep in the fold, gilding our gold
Sipping our milk and water lives

She packed our bags some arbitrary time
Then waved like a flag from the White Star Line
Unmoored, unwell, though I seldom elegize
We've both been untrue, but I'm still counting on you
Like an invisible rosary

And as the past and all plans are undone
Slowly sank like a shipwrecked sun
Bridges and boats, burning them both
Burned up the sky

Wires sang as the black birds fell
Sorrow rang like a churchyard bell
And asked the trees, smoke for the bees
All our dads died