Dream Wraith
  
Who is that young man that I see walking,
down by the river on the Hampshire plain?
As he moves he casts not a shadow;
where does he come from, what is his name?
  
Why does he, both at sunrise and sunset
walk always along the same winding track?
Pausing outside some house by the riverside -
but from the dreamworld there is no way back.
  
I watch as he fingers the words by the door frame,
the name that for him was once called home.
But now the inscription is just a memory
as his body lies beneath the churchyard loam.
  
He moves down the street like shadow over water
and people don’t see him as he passes them by.
I watch as he turns to see where I’m standing
and the word that forms on his lips is ‘Why?’  

His gravestone lies amidst other broken relics
shaded from the weather by an age-old yew.
Only as a dream wraith does he walk beside me,
while night spreads out its cloak of blue.
  
Every day, I come to see him walking,
down by the river on the Hampshire plain.
And when he moves I lend him my shadow,
but best of all, I know his name...

15/12/97