Nocturnal


I saw you briefly in a Canterbury park

You were asking for directions

How beautiful you were

Slight with raven black hair

But I knew that you were trapped

As your husband was of an orthodox faith

A faith that cared nothing for beauty

You would bear many children

And lose your looks in the coming years

I looked back to where you had been standing

But you were no longer there

It was as if you had never existed at all