Did it ever really go down?

Did it ever really go down?

That time on the ice-rink in China?

Maybe the place was up near Chengdu?

Or still in Kunming?

We took a bus near 9pm, right?

Then we walked the suburbs

and finally found the empty indoor rink

as the sun collapsed on us.

It sounds all wrong

and I’ve wondered

why there are no photos of those hours

or why we’ve not spoken of it since.

But I’m sure that once on our China trip

we skated some lonely ice-rink

late through the night

in a neighbourhood to the south of the country.

I have this one hazy memory

of you dressed in black:

you skate in circles at some point

then slowly draw near.

We stumble and embrace,

perhaps for the final time

before the decay.

Our damned decay.

Up till then,

we must not have even known decay.

We were but 22

—young love in a strange arena

in a part of the world

that already seemed unreal.

Or perhaps we never loved each other.

Perhaps we were far too young to.

Perhaps there was no such ice-rink.

But I think there was

and I feel my mind is struggling to recall it

for there are some things

only the heart can remember.