I Thought….(1970’s)

I Thought….(1970’s)

I thought I loved the house,
It was the man.
I thought I loved the man,
It was the house.

I’d slid from Highgate down to Hampstead Lane.
Passed old Kenwood …that former stately home;
The art…the music and the lake
The trees of old Shalom.

Thru’ Hampstead with its act-or crowd,
Down Haverstock to Kentish Town.
Passed hipster Camden, boheme scribes,
Alan Bennett and The Van.

Towards a shabby old Kings Cross,
Passed hungry hooker-pick-up types,
Then East, to Aldgate’s Old Half Moon…
Guys and Dolls and Mack the Knife!

Along the endless Mile End Rd. ..
Tenements and market stalls.
The Krays, the unemployed,
And women weary with the world.

And I arrived…at Mile End Bow.
A poor, decaying gritty zone.
Two up, two down, with crumbling walls.
A leaking roof and loo outdoors.

Estranged and now alone.

I thought I loved the man.
It was the house.
I thought I loved the house,
It was the man.

I’d thought I loved.
It was the thought.

Kristine Byrne. Dec. 2019