The
Regent’s Park is one of London’s several major parks and not far from where I
live. After strolling on Hampstead Heath, it is my second favourite pastime to
walk along the Regent’s Canal towpath, pass by London Zoo’s aviary and over the
bridge into the park. Besides acres of beautifully cared for grass and
trees; there is also Queen Victoria’s rose garden (splendid in summertime) and a lake that nurtures all kinds of wildlife including beautiful
black as well as white swans.
Ah, but
that it is not the only reason I love the park for chance can be a very fine
thing indeed...
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
I was out
in the Regent’s Park, seeking
an ice
cream man for a toffee fudge cone,
when I
saw him in a window of a café,
his face a
rosy hue, baseball cap all askew,
knew I just had to try my luck with him,
knew I just had to try my luck with him,
maybe even find out (in time) why a light
in his
eyes shone so dim, as if peering
through a
sunny haze, seeking something
or
someone, perhaps a reason for living?
Ice cream
forgotten, I went and (discreetly)
sat down
at his table, politely asking
if I may,
an ice cold orange juice in solitary
splendour
on a large oval tray, pleased
when he
nodded, although he did not say
a word, merely continued to look out
of the
window (at a world passing him by?)
And who
was I, a stranger to enquire?
Oh, how
the pucker of his brow, green eyes
and full
lips, set my entire being on fire
in a way
that had happened only once before,
thought
never to strike twice in a lifetime;
yet, here
was I, blushing like a teenager, just
for
trying to make conversation with a man
who may
even turn out to be straight, although
I doubted
that (don’t ask me why or whose
need the
greater) but we got chatting by and by
(no easy
task, I have to say, but got easier)
Many a
day since, especially after a falling out,
we’d sulk
(separately) in the Regent’s Park,
but
invariably make up again, come what may,
at that
same café where our lives took off...
Copyright
R. N. Taber 2004; 2011
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