Coffee with Mel.in Java

Coffee with Mel in Java -

Talk of the International Socialists -

Budapest, the Arrow Cross, the Hotel Gellert -

The Shoes on the Danube Bank -

 Mel saying how grief is hard -

Calling for another coffee -

Knowing the names of the girls -

Telling a story about Peter Cook at the football -

Then one of the docker who'd taken care of a revolver -

Whilst Mel talked, I breathed the air of Dagenham -

I smelled hot metal -

I marvelled at the lightness of his bones -

Java, Swanage 

March 2026

Playing pirates in Churchill Gardens

Playing pirates with Jake in Churchill Gardens -

Spring blossoms on winter's tree -

A girl running past us, light as air -

Salisbury 

March 2026

The navy blue Guernsey

I'm wearing the navy blue Guernsey -

Ken wore it before me -

He walked the Ilhara Gorge wearing it -

Braved mastiffs -

Wore it whilst pouring a midnight Laphroaig into a crystal glass -

I remember him when I wear it -

His smile, his courtesy -

His large gentle hands -

March 2026

Remembering Borges' words

Sunlight falling on bright reefs of books - 

Remembering Borges' words -

Paradise as a kind of library -

Swanage Library 

March 2026

Before Wuthering Heights

A Merlot in the bar -

The art deco clock -

Billie Holliday singing - 

The Rex, Wareham 

February 2026

Full English in the Red Lion Hotel

A Full English under gnarled creaking beams -

Prints of three bottle squires -

A glimpse of a cobbled courtyard -

A painting of a mutton chopped alderman on the stairs -

Red Lion Hotel, Salisbury 

March 2026

Le Cirque du Soleil

Beautiful girls whirling through the air - 

A wild violin -

A yellow butterfly -

Albert Hall

February 2026