East Enders Wives

We met by chance on the row riverside
 Our salt fire danced as our tea leaves dried
 She hatched our plans in the atmospheric tide
 Said, "Let's give up, sacrifice next lent"
 (Well that joke's long since been spent)
 So as the fool on the bagpipes played
 We kept cool in the parasol shade
 Your thumb on my page at my tender age
 East enders wives
 Then hidden in the boxthorn vine
 We grew old as the foxtail pine
 Sheep in the fold, gilding our gold
 Sipping our milk and water lives
 She packed our bags some arbitrary time
 Then waved like a flag from the White Star Line
 Unmoored, unwell, though I seldom elegize
 We've both been untrue, but I'm still counting on you
 Like an invisible rosary
 And as the past and all plans are undone
 Slowly sank like a shipwrecked sun
 Bridges and boats, burning them both
 Burned up the sky
 Wires sang as the black birds fell
 Sorrow rang like a churchyard bell
 And asked the trees, smoke for the bees
 All our dads died