Tin Man

How love is crucial to freedom

And sometimes, when the day loomed grey, I’d sit at my desk and remember the heat of that summer

They sat there quietly, not talking about death, or the kiss, or how life was going to change

What’s got into you?

I’m stuck.

Still? she said.

All the things you were going to do

as stars appeared as fragile as ice crystals

And Michael said, We carry on and we don’t give up. And he knelt down and kissed him. It was their first kiss. Something good in a day of bad.

Talking bollocks because of the drugs.

The year was 1976. You were thirty. Me, twenty-five. These are the details you never thought I’d remember.

Do you remember how you stared at me? How unnerved you made me feel? And I asked you why you were staring at me.

He built the fires and Annie opened the wine, and the years rolled out. Thirteen, to be precise. Thirteen years of grapes and warmth.