Hugo Williams

Billy’s Rain

How do you think I feel When you make me talk to you And won’t let me stop Till the words turn into a moan? Do you think I mind When you put your

Siren Song

I phone from time to time, to see if she’s Changed the music on her answerphone. ‘Tell me in two words’, goes the recording, ‘what you were going to tell in a thousand’. I

Timer

The smell of ammonia in the entrance hall. The racing bike. The junk mail. The timer switch whose single naked bulb Allowed us as far as the first floor. The backs of your legs

Bar Italia

How beautiful it would be to wait for you again In the usual place, Not looking at the door, Keeping a lookout in the long mirror, Knowing that if you are late It will

Her News

You paused for a moment and I heard you smoking On the other end of the line. I pictured your expression, One eye screwed shut against the smoke As you waited for my reaction.

Unobtainable

Whether it was putting in an extra beat, Or leaving one out, I couldn’t tell. My heart seemed to have forgotten Everything it ever knew About timing and co-ordination In its efforts to get

Everyone who made love the night before Was walking around with flashing red lights On top of their heads-a white-haired old gentlemen, A red-faced schoolboy, a pregnant woman Who smiled at me from across