There was dancing

There was dancing

Even in the dark

With the lights out

Forty years ago

I would have seen you

Beaming golden

Streaming through midnight

Naked in cool waters

Alive with wonder

Sex and love is addictive

The best kind

I wonder if seniors looked back

At me in anger

At what was lost

Or settled for what was found.

Dressing table etiquette

Moments to treasure

Eyes closed or open

Heaven is real

For more than a moment.

Don’t listen to naysayers

Who boil with envy

A cooling of ardour

When they count the cost

Of losing.

Forty years on

And I undress death

With little pleasure

For the inevitability

Of decline.

When the light is out

Imagination runs wild

I rarely catch up

But when I do

There is still an ache

For you.

The smell of citrus

The promise of a new day

And I sleep

Without sorrow.