The silverback ...

The Australian leaned forward, smiling - he was like some magnificent silverback, I thought, with his bright eyes, barrel chest and that shock of white hair - 

There's plenty of nothingness in Australia he said - a lot of emptiness - 

He told me that he'd seen dolphins swimming up the river near his house - as big as those two sofas put together -

We spoke of the lost shipyards of the Tyne - 

It's all gone East he said to China - 

He told me that he had a young Chinese wife - she thought Saughy Rigg a little down at heel - 

I imagined them, stepping into a gleaming lift, in some pristine tower in Guangzhou - it would be after midnight - the lights of the vast city would be like new stars -

I murmured good morning to the balloonist standing by the ziggurat of our bags - 

9.00

10 July 2014

The room of red sofas

Saughy Rigg