That place we saw once<\/p>\n

Driving that bright January day;<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember the name of the town<\/p>\n

Just bigger than a village<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t often drive that way now.<\/p>\n

But somewhere on a hill,<\/p>\n

Stark trees against the sharp blue sky<\/p>\n

Up on the ridge, a red phone box<\/p>\n

Against the snowy hedge,<\/p>\n

The morning almost silent<\/p>\n

Now the car\u2019s calmed down.<\/p>\n

Our eyes nearly back to normal<\/p>\n

Once the motorway\u2019s long behind us.<\/p>\n

Cold with the window open.<\/p>\n

Definitely not a day you want<\/p>\n

To come out without a coat.<\/p>\n

That feeling in your throat this time of year<\/p>\n

Making you wonder if it\u2019s the weather<\/p>\n

Or whether you\u2019re getting a cold<\/p>\n

And how long it\u2019s been since you were here before.<\/p>\n

The shop\u2019s become someone\u2019s house now<\/p>\n

And other new houses built on fields<\/p>\n

To let you know you\u2019re getting older,<\/p>\n

But still alive. Still alive<\/p>\n

As a cat walks across the frosty road<\/p>\n

This crisp morning and you\u2019d swear<\/p>\n

You caught the Boxing Day fox-hunting<\/p>\n

Smell of cigars as you turned the corner<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t quite where you remembered it was.<\/p>\n

Wrong turn;\u00a0And you drive the length<\/p>\n

Of this Cotswold street.<\/p>\n

A man on his phone, smiling, carrying the newspaper<\/p>\n

Back towards his home or someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Safe and warm for now.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d lived here it would have been different.<\/p>\n

All of it. And you know that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

How different it would all have been<\/p>\n

If I\u2019d never known you.<\/p>\n