I thought of you as a friend.

We shared our bread

Our innermost thoughts

Our shopping bills, the very air

We breathed, our lives, our home.

 

Now, ‘our’ has become just ‘I’ and ‘me’,

Did the marriage of our minds

Simply fail to satisfy you.

Did I snore? Did my breath smell bad?

Was I the worst nightmare you ever had?

 

I am out on the streets,

As the cold nights draw in.

I forage for the small change

A stranger has thrown in my tin.

Will I be able to buy my old life back?

Or should I just buy some booze

To ward off the nightly panic attack.

 

I hold my despair out in front of me.

It is plain, the pain in my eyes.

You’d have to be blind not to see.

This downwards spiral will be there

Until the end,

But I wanted you to know, my dear,

I thought of you as a friend.

 

I have found a new home in the litter

On the way to Piccadilly Station.

We form a ragged line of human

Refuse, refugees from the blight

Of modern existence, relationship

Breakdown

And the cost-of-living crisis.

You can see me in my new shop doorway,

It’s the one just around the bend.

Come and see me and I’ll tell you

I thought of you as a friend!