Delectable Mountain

 

First Date

 

We’d so much in common, that was clear from the start:

A marriage of souls, like de Beauvoir and Sartre.

The connection was instant, almost irrational:

simply simpatico, fully compatible.

 

You confessed you loved winter, North Yorkshire, and cats.

‘Me, too!’ I responded. ‘How amazing is that?’

You were wild about Wharton: you loved Ethan Frome.

‘His best’, I said, thinking I’d read him when home.

 

You praised a revival of Pinter’s Dumb Waiter.

I nodded along. I should Google that later.

The discussion then turned to things that you hated:

Pulp Fiction, you thought, was quite over-rated.

 

‘You make some good points’, I eventually said.

I could always hide that poster under my bed.

You spoke of a loathing of poetry that rhymed

And I said. Yes,

That stuff’s awful.

-          Brian Bilston