A SONG for a lost love and the waning year.

Peter Davidson catches in words the musically melancholic mood of these city blues.

EARLY NIGHTFALL BLUES

Smoke at the window, ghosts on the radio,

Cold in the dusk and the sound of the city below,

As the rose of the evening goes over gentle and slow.

Desolate western sky where the red sun shone,

Flicker of streetlights, lamps in long windows come on,

I loved one love alone and my love is gone.

Ash and scarlet ache in the wasting day,

My love stole into the crowd and vanished away,

And I ask of the fallen sun that one shadow should stay.

Crowds on the pavements break and falter and flow,

My love is gone among them, though I know

All the byways and narrow lanes where we used to go.

Cobalt blue city below the frost,

Twilight passing, hope and luck both past -

Black dark, evening star, and my darling lost.