City Love Song

It was dawn of shortest night
What a city, what a sight
A vortex of delights.
The chance card said ‘advance to go’, so I did
I had the city to myself on that bridge.
The river shimmered up at me
I saw in Klimt and Klee
I asked the city to take me back.
Then took my cue from the limitless view
Where prospect old and new overlaps.

But then dusk of shortest day
Although I got my way
‘Told you so’ is quick to say.
Am I the only one who’s cold at the do?
Outside the busy streets are costume-jewelled
But I can’t fake the Christmas cheer
Can’t shake my worst fears
What with one thing, then another.
Amid easy-peel tangerines
And neo-rococo dreams
There’s an ice sculpture melting in the gutter.

Cut, then told it doesn’t hurt
Oh so casually subsumed
Has it really come to that?
I thought we’d made a pact.
We were estranged
I was ashamed
I’m to blame.

Along the banks the structures queue
How luminous the hue
It is Braque that Turner sky breaks through.
And on that bridge we re-convene
To see the spaces in between.
Who really knows the stakes?
I ask the cityscape
There’ll be more risks to take and reconcile.
Aren’t we all astray
In a way?
I’d like to stay awhile.

© Suzanna van Moyland