The shrine on Southsea Common ...

Sometimes I see roadside shrines when I'm driving the red Peugeot -

I turn off the radio, and think about these ephemeral memorials - 

There's a ghost bike, just outside Wareham, near a roundabout - 

At night, car headlights illuminate the white frame - shadows are thrown upon the grass where the fragile rider lay - 

There's a laminated photograph, fastened to a lamp post by the side of the Causeway, of a young man in a rugby shirt - he fell into the road on New Year's Eve - 

There they are, glimpsed from the car, these wreaths placed upon the verges of murderous dual carriageways, or attached to railings near some congested junction - 

Once, walking with Richard across Southsea Common, on our way to a louche bar filled with poets, we saw a shrine at the base of a plane tree - there were bunches of flowers, one wrapped around with a red cord - 

We read a few words summing up a short chaotic life - this was a boy's favourite tree - his friends remembered him with love - 

September 14 2014

Southsea Common