Postcard Lovers - Stacey Kent

Lately I’ve become such a postcard lover

Especially of the ones I get from you

And if, these days, they don’t come quite so often

They charm me more than ever when they do

I picture you beside a sunny harbour

Waiting for a boat to come to shore

Your finger lingering on a postcard spinner

In the doorway of a tacky tourist store

Or whiling away those warm enchanted evenings

Writing in the corner of some café

Those careless collections of words and feelings

You happened to feel like sending me that day

I save every card, although it gets hard

To keep some order amongst those random souvenirs

It amazes me some, the way we’ve become

Such postcard lovers, divided by the oceans

And the years

Have you found yourself some wonderful companion

And all the happiness that heaven allows

Or are you homesick for that grey and drizzly nation

As you walk home amidst the evening crowds

The postcards I send to you from my own travels

Can hardly match the ones you send to me

But at least I give you news of what I’m doing

And open my heart to you occasionally

Looking back on all the cards you’ve written

From every far-flung corner beneath the sun

They say so little of the life you’re really leading

So little of the person you’ve become

But they still bear the traces of all the special places

We’ve kept deep within our hopes and in our fears

It amazes me some, the way we’ve become

Such postcard lovers, divided by the oceans and the years