If we had never met,

If we had never met,

Never kissed or laughed together

Huddled in the rain

Soaked through to the skin

The steam rising in the drying

Bathed in the light

From a halogen lamp

In a darkened street

Just before dawn broke

Over the rooftops

With a watery London sun

Waiting in the deep

Wearing a wet smile

Eager to greet another day

Would we know?

If we had passed on the stairs

Of the underground

Hurrying and scurrying

Finding our way

Climbing aboard a tube train

Standing in a crowd

Wearing a blank face

Reading the morning news

Catching up on a backlog

Before we even got to work

Trading time for validation

Drinking alone in a bar full of people

Standing at a bus stop

Whilst the wind blew a gale

The snow fell

The Christmas lights twinkled

In shop windows

And strangers said hello

Would we know?

When we looked at a reflection

Instead of the display

Averting our gaze

For fear of recognition,

If we brushed arms as we reached

For the handle to the door of

A coffee shop

A black cab

Or a bag of mixed salad

In the vegetable aisle of a supermarket

On Islington High Street

In bleak mid-winter

When the air outside on a snowy street

Was as cold as the ice

In the freezer section

Would we know

Who we were?

Would we?