a simple story of anticipation and loss

The youngest amongst us was anxious
He was excited and eager to leave
He ironed his shirts till they glistened
And he left a deep crease on his sleeve

The old man was much more phlegmatic
He’d been there he’d seen it before
When the time came to get on the plane
He rose quietly and slipped through the door

The stewardess brought fruit cake and French fries
She told us it wouldn’t be long
She bit on a mustard filled sandwich
And stayed till we finished our song

The toilet was out on an island
In a hole in a rock in a shed
It wasn’t too safe it wasn’t too clean
It was more an offence to the dead

The plane had been scheduled for Paris
We should have arrived before dawn
When we landed in Key West that evening
I might have guessed something was wrong

We collided together in violence
A crash and a roar and a fire
She smiled through her eyes she showed me her thighs
Her hands were clenched tight with desire

She took me into a log cabin
Where the windows were holes in the wall
In her naked embrace I looked in her face
The tears fell with no thought of recall

When the weeping was over we made love
Maybe two or three times I don’t know
Because now the sun shone we had lost everyone
Only our footprints were left in the snow