Hugo Williams Poems

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 How beautiful it would be to wait for you again 
in the usual place, 
not looking at the door, 
keeping a lookout in the long mirror,
knowing that if you are late
it will not be too late,
knowing that all I have to do
is wait a little longer
and you will be pushing through the other customers,
out of breath, apologetic.
Where have you...Read more of this...

 How do you think I feel
when you make me talk to you
and won't let me stop
till the words turn into a moan?
Do you think I mind
when you put your hand over my mouth
and tell me not to move
so you can "hear" it happening?


And how do you think I like it
when you tell me what to do
and your mouth opens
and...Read more of this...

 Now that she has left the room for a moment
to powder her nose,
we watch and wait, watch and wait,
for her to bring back the purpose into our lives....Read more of this...

 You paused for a moment and I heard you smoking
on the other end of the line.
I pictured your expression,
one eye screwed shut against the smoke
as you waited for my reaction.
I was waiting for it myself, a list of my own news
gone suddenly cold in my hand.
Supposing my wife found out, what would happen then?
Would I have to leave her...Read more of this...

 Everyone who made love the night before 
was walking around with flashing red lights 
on top of their heads-a white-haired old gentlemen, 
a red-faced schoolboy, a pregnant woman 
who smiled at me from across the street 
and gave a little secret shrug, 
as if the flashing red light on her head 
was a small price to pay for what...Read more of this...

 This is the one song everyone 
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:

the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls

the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember.

Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me 
out of this bird suit?

I...Read more of this...

 I phone from time to time, to see if she's 
changed the music on her answerphone. 
'Tell me in two words', goes the recording,
'what you were going to tell in a thousand'. 

I peer into that thought, like peering out 
to sea at night, hearing the sound of waves 
breaking on rocks, knowing she is there, 
listening, waiting for...Read more of this...

 The smell of ammonia in the entrance hall.
The racing bike. The junk mail.
The timer switch whose single naked bulb
allowed us as far as the first floor.
The backs of your legs
as you went ahead of me up the stairs.


The landing where we paused for breath
and impatient key searching.
The locks which would never open quickly enough
to let us in.
The green of...Read more of this...

 Whether it was putting in an extra beat, 
or leaving one out, I couldn't tell. 
My heart seemed to have forgotten 
everything it ever knew 
about timing and co-ordination 
in its efforts to get through to someone 
on the other side of a wall. 
As I lay in bed, I could hear it 
hammering away inside my pillow, 
being...Read more of this...