As though I were waiting to drink with the consul

Sitting at my window in the Beaumont Hotel -

Hearing the traffic hiss on the wet street - 

Rain fell suddenly on the town -

I was drinking spiced coffee when the first drops fell -

Listening to mariachi -

As though I wore a linen suit, waiting to drink with the consul -

Little Mexico 

Hexham

July 2026 

In Olive

I read The Yorkshire Post in Olive -

There is gentle piano music -

Widows murmur over their focaccia -

A slender siren of a barista deftly crafts a cortado -

Olive

Scarborough 

July 2026 

The Italian Gardens

The air was still in the Italian Gardens -

A cool wind blew in from the sea -

Trees shaded the quiet paths -

Above was a sky of heaven's blue -

I looked for my ghosts near the stilled fountain -

They came to me, one by one -

The Italian Gardens 

Scarborough 

July 2026 

Whitby Abbey

The dark stone was lapped by windswept grass -

Soaring arches held up a roof of sky and cloud -

Swifts flew through the high windows -

I glimpsed the timeless blue of the sea - 

.

Whitby Abbey

July 2026

Robin Hoods Bay

Once more losing myself in this salty mazy tangle -

Walking up Tommy Baxter Street -

Two herring gulls brawling on a rooftop -

Robin Hoods Bay 

July 2026

Perhaps remembering me

I follow Wallace down the fairway -

I see the man he will be, wearing now a boy's skin -

Tall, kind, with a gentle heart -

Perhaps remembering me if he walks here -

Under these trees, not far from the sea -

Filey

July 2026 1m

Scarborough Monopoly

We play a wild game of Scarborough Monopoly -

Wallace cannily planting hotels -

Otis tumbling the dice like a Mississippi gambler - 

Scarborough 

July 2026