First Rain
Not sure how to get
back home, are we?
The frost has stuck its nails to
the inside of the mouth and pulls.
The roundabout we were
treading upon crawled up
with poise, like a brotherly figure
serving tea, in a harmonious arc.
The catch here is feeling the magic
of the moment, the air of 3 am,
freezing under a scruffy South London street light,
about to fade or crumble any moment now.
Your face twitched and you startled
for a moment, genuflected
your wobbly figure, as you
glimpsed at the stammering void.
It was sudden and we both felt it,
this grandeur through which
the ocean’s water washed
the evening away.
Serge Neptune is a London-based poet and translator, whose work deals mainly with mental health issues in the gay community. He is working on his first pamphlet, a gay retelling of the Little Mermaid, which focuses on the struggle of homosexual men with depression.