The Thames at Reading

The Thames at Reading

 

 

‘We just don’t know

What we must do

To change what we have done.

You say it’ll be the end of you

And I feel that way too.’

 

‘Let’s start again, let’s start again

As if we had just met.

Let’s see each other with those eyes

As we saw ourselves before

Let us enjoy that former view

We had when our eyes were new.’

 

‘Where then are we to go

To find ourselves once more?’

 

‘Don’t talk of Paris or of Rome

And places we have been.

The healing comes from deep within

Not from a change of scene.’

 

‘Paris will manage very well

If we’re not strolling by the Seine.

If we’re not there on the boulevards

No one will notice a gap in the crowd.’

 

‘Rome will not miss

A couple of coins in the fountain.

And Venice must flood without us this year.’

 

‘Let’s walk along the Thames, my love,

Where we have walked before.

There’s a path right by the river there

A path so clear to see

It’s far the best way on for us.

Let’s follow it you and me.’

 

‘There will swim a pair of swans

As white as recent snow.

That’s the place to walk along

That’s the place to go.’

 

‘Let’s start back by the Thames again

And see the swans once more,

Paddling with purpose against the stream

Which flows with a will downhill to the sea,

Minute after minute, year by year,

With no hesitation or deviation at all.

Even the towpath knows where it must go.

Amidst such intent to carry on

We’ll see the path we have to follow’