The Master and Margarita ...

Walking up the stairs to the second floor of the bookshop, I came across a number of framed posters, stylish evocations of modern classics - 

I thought I heard the suave murderous tom cat whispering to me -

Take this revolver, he tempted, blast these apparatchiks - fly through the air - 

I first come across Bulgakov's fable a world ago in a louche seaside town - 

Even now, I'm haunted by the melancholy beauty of the fable - I imagine that I'll hear the voice of a tyrant on my I phone - I see Woland sipping a latte at the table next to mine - an aching loneliness overwhelms me - 

I was staying with Jay and Bridget - I think it was Bridget's paperback - she was reading Russian at Sussex University - 

I was a shy visitant to high ceilinged rooms - my disguise was a velvet jacket - I smoked Balkan Sobranie cigarettes - 

I remember walking up Trafalgar Street, towards the railway station, waiting for love to jump out upon me like a murderer - 

2.26

June 27 2014

The Old School House

East Stoke