I met Joseph in the Captains Bar at the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. He was an old man but immaculately dressed and he told me a story about his first and only true love and of their marriage and life together.

They had first met in the summer of 1948 in the small town of Beverley in East Yorkshire. They had both been recently demobbed from the Royal Air Force where they had spent the war working on Hurricane and spitfire fighter planes. There was just a few years between them and despite the security offered by their home town they had decided to try their luck in London. With the little money they had managed to save they opened a small grocers shop in North Kensington which over the years expanded into a sizeable business. They would eventually sell it to the London Co operative Society and retire to Bournemouth. When they reached their 70’s they decided they had things they wanted to do, but not together. He went east to Burma and she travelled to the United States. Over the years they kept in touch but never met again.

Silkwords wonderful words on the subject of love are mostly as her original but I have rephrased them and left a few words out. Take a listen to her original and to all the other great poems she has uploaded.

Just another love story


In the sacrificial moments when love hits the ground
The good old boy and the aging beauty hardly made a sound
They just looked beyond their eyes to a world that was offering more time

And with a kiss they sailed away it was to be their final day
Each had a dream that they would chase their futures in another place
They thought they’d make it to the end
But at least the years had left them as good friends