TOO LONG WE BOTH HAD WAITED

the Garde du Nord was frantic
the night I took the sleeper east
my destination Budapest
dreaming you might fly in from Nice

too long we both had waited
I’d delayed, fearing the worst
yet as the stench of false freedom faded
I travelled unfazed and unrehearsed

’56 had seen Soviet tanks
destroy any glimmer of hope
within those confines our love had bloomed
looking back how did we cope?

the lucky ones escaped they say
from the stamp of Mother Russia’s boots
yet what kind of freedom is it
when you leave behind your roots?

I had heard that your Riviera days
were not without sweet sorrow
and I kept the keepsake your family sent
I held on to it like no tomorrow

yet now several decades later
a Warsaw Pact no more
impedes our right to be here again
and to savour…