The Promises Of Children

Meg Hutchinson

Children on the swings was it Autumn was it Spring?

When we promised each other everything?

A porch facing west after years of correspondence

A testimony to divine plan?





Now the vans and the planes the buses and the trains

Converge in my mind one common goodbye

I come bearing maps yeah room to room with my atlas

Do you have any idea why I leave so fast?





It's cause at night I dream of boats that I cannot

seem to steer

And acres of flowers under glass

It's cause at night I dream of words that won't

spill off in the bath

Do the promises of children ever last?





I walk the midnight aisles ceremoniously tired

Married to this empty cart this mile

Neither moving east nor absolutely west

We excuse our little dreams as dual honesties

But still at night I dream of boats ...