(For a lost friend, Dianne)

When the sun sinks low in the evening sky;
When the stars begin to shine,
We don’t care about the how or why,
For we know it will work out fine.
For when we hear the church bells pealing,
We know the night is on the wane.
But when the sun goes down on feeling,
It can never rise again.

In our friendship’s early dawning,
When the sun was bright and new,
The heat of our summer morning
Burned away the misty dew.
But our sun has gone forever,
Leaving night time’s blackened pall.
And I feel my eyes mist over,
As the tears begin to fall.

Oh, how we laughed together
In our hazy afternoon;
Like children in the heather,
In the heart of leafy June.
But afternoons don’t last all day,
No matter how they’re blessed.
And soon the sun is on its way,
To lie low in the west.

We didn’t notice the stormy dusk,
Until the sun had disappeared.
And the only things that are left to us,
Are anger, pain and fear.
Too late I realise just how much,
I loved you through our day.
And I weep as the hands of midnight touch,
For this night that won’t go away.

(Written 26th January 1993)