Thomas Hardy's other poem

we met 10 years ago, you know    
I remember your smile; all style    
and those hips, my god those hips those lips to launch the usual ships  
and your boyfriend    
nothing says stay away like a big brown boyfriend    
I didn’t though, although, you know, you had a role to play a thing to say, your way, in that beautiful chase    
    
how you could wrap words like birds a flock a fleet a street of ideas    
100 words to my 10…remember when    
    
whispering into your pussy, trying to get to the inside of you    
your body, a too-slim hymn, like god used the wrong pencil    
the vice of your passion    
“are you big” you whispered “because I’m small”    
  
pain was always in the picture    
    
I loved you    
    
but...hurting you and watching you stagger become a habit, a dance we danced into between flashes of fuck-hot heat    
    
so rare now my visits seem    
the dream, the Elizabeth, the cream    
    
I loved to watch you hold court, arguing an angle until someone bled    
and then another night, fighting the opposite corner like you’d thought that all along    
you, Elizabeth, were always my favourite song    
    
hell-cat woman, lightning made flesh  
 
 
    
it’s dead now, I know it    
you had to do it, because I never would have, never could have    
    
see you in another lifetime baby, when I’m not a drunk, and you weren’t left alone    
we’ll lay quiet, in a room for love    
scarless, careless lovers, and really care for each-other    
    
this time I’ll whisper to your lips  
 
 
 
 
 
(an older piece, back on a whim, likely to go again the same way)