When you & I were young
We would press our white faces from the car
& the rain on the windows would run through the gathering dark
& the lampposts shone & dogs would run into the dying frame
Where the park was glowing dimly through the silence of the lanes
& the radiators hum rose above the falling leaves
Where so fragile & so young you had drifted into sleep
I've been for a walk
& every face I see seems to be mine
Night-time comes
The birds have flown
A fever glows in every line
I love this season
This weary night
The flint the dreams the silent pines
The eeriness
Is in the feeling
That I have finished everything
& a child from the school was running back to her car
& her white face cried she was deaf & afraid of the dark
& the whispering house grew still as we stared into the night
In the garden & the lamps & the window's fading light
& though Christmas was the same, we had seen another year
Turning softly through the flames