The Distance Between Them.(Poem)

 
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THEM 
 
   That was the giveaway. All the way down 
   they had walked like that, in step, 
   but sufficiently apart that no accident 
   could cause one to brush against the other. 
   He kept well towards the centre of the road. 
   She skirted the verge, her feet just missing 
   crunchy lumps of snow and ice, so avoiding 
   that awkward slip which might make a statement. 
   A distance nicely managed by them both, 
   tacit, in a peculiarly English kind of way. 
   Incompatible, they read each other with an expert's eye. 
 
   Their talk matched the way they walked-the 
   qualities of snow, a strand of firs, 
   the practice of landscaped forestry, 
   the siting of a cottage, even this cottage, 
   the sparseness of a single exposed birch. 
   Walks they had done, or hoped to do, 
   with other companions, other times. 
 
   Hardly wind ...