Second-floor flat overlooking Pearson Park in Hull
Larkin's rented accommodation from 1956 to 1974
HIGH WINDOWS
—for Philip Larkin
When I see a couple of guys—
And guess he’s fucking him and they’re
Taking pills or wearing a rubber, I hope
They’re practicing safe sex
So many before them lost their lives—
Bonds and gestures pushed to one side
Like an outdated Joan Crawford flick,
And everyone went down the long slide
To death and now thirty years later—
We look back and think what a waste,
All those lives gone needlessly and now
Here I am in Philip Larkin’s flat
No more DOMA and having to hide—
Priests not needed for gay marriages
And now it’s our turn to go down the
Long slide like those others did
And immediately the thought of—
Larkin in this room of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass, and
beyond it, Nothing, Nowhere, Endless
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