I would climb narrow stairs to find the morning ...

I dozed the calm afternoon away, waking from parched dreams to drink glass after glass of tomato juice -  

Anne looked at me closely - 

Did you drink too much last night? she asked - 

*

I remembered the furious red in the painter's studio, the forty niners after midnight in The Phoenix with Maggie and Ed - 

A man had played Uilleann pipes -  

Poets had read their verses - 

A woman had worn a white mask - 

Dizzy with wine and music I'd shouted bravo! bravo! - 

Later, I'd walked with Richard past darkened houses -  

The pavements rippled beneath our feet - 

I would climb narrow stairs to find the morning - 

*

Two pints and two glasses of wine I said - 

02.00

Friday 9 October 2015

Southsea