The City Sky

For quite a while I viewed this as one of my best pieces, and I think it has aged well, unlike a couple of others from this same period. I particularly like the quite strong sense of place I managed to work into the verse – it's a theme I would expand on later, and perhaps hints that Bath was already becoming more and more of a 'home' for me, or at least the setting for some memorable memories.

Inspired by a brief fling in the summer of 2011 (and, incidentally, posted with the permission of the person in question)...a look back to the days of first discoveries, when anything seems possible. But whether you realise the illusion or not, time will always catch up. Bittersweet – yes, I'm happy with it.

THE CITY SKY

These city streets have seen a romance                                                        

That passed so quickly amongst them

Just a month ago, and now no more

But I cannot forget.

Hey

Remember?

Remember how we ran each day

Wishing we could walk instead

Through time that was too fast?

Ten days to love, we knew it wouldn't last.

And so we lay

Under the city sky.

Think back

I don't know

Where you are now in your life

But look back

To those ten days of summer

Under the city sky.

Hey

Remember me?

Remember us? 

Remember the sunrise

After the closely entwined night

There in the twilight

We grasped and we sighed at each other

And the time, the time

We knew was against us.

I can see you

Coming down the garden path

To hold me close in the grass

I'd never wanted to hold on

To something more than I did then

But the city sky was grey, it knew the truth.

I can hear you

Your beautiful laugh

Your beautiful whisper

And sometimes they both came together

And it wouldn't last forever

But those moments were so perfect when they came.

I can taste you

The passion and the longing

In our kisses on Lymore Avenue

It seems so strange now, only ten days

Slipping off into the past

But back then it was real.

The night had worn on

And there we had been

Laughing and drinking together

Biding our time until later

Laura Marling playing in our ears

All too aware that all time disappears.

I can smell you

Your morning hair on your pillow

When I woke in your arms

And you turned

And smiled

And held me again.

I can feel you

The evening heat on your skin

On the hillside at Solsbury

Clinging together

Nearing the end

Under the fire of the city sky.

Remember the sunset

Fight not to forget

It was right, it was right

That it finally ended

But good memories last

And I think we should let them.

So thank you

For what you showed me

And what we had

Maybe it wasn't love

But it was enough for us

And the city sky.

Hey

Remember me.

Remember us.

(Dedicated to a special memory)

Thanks to: The Police for Tea In The Sahara, Sting for Fields Of Gold, Franz Ferdinand for Auf Achse, Queen for Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together), and Laura Marling for Ghosts and Tap At My Window.