Tom Vaughan

Doesn’t

I dream of being in bed with you –
of staying awake the whole night through
doing the things that lovers do

but I am old and so are you
and though it’s true that we’ve come through
we cannot do what lovers do

and stay awake the whole night through
(though there’s the loowards trip or two)
and I would laugh and so would you

were we to try what lovers do –
to make love for the whole night through –
which doesn’t mean I don’t love you

and hope you’d still use that word too
whatever it means and whether it’s true
that love’s what’s left when night is through.

Tom Vaughan’s previous publications include a novel on post-colonial Africa and three small poetry collections, the latest being Just a Minute (Cyberwit, 2024). His poems have appeared in a range of poetry and current affairs magazines, and in anthologies. “Beltway Blues” from the HappenStance 2013 Envoy collection was included in the Songs of Love and Loss cycle by pianist/composer Sir Stephen Hough, premiered in a Wigmore Hall concert in London in 2023.