I know secrets

Watching X Files -

It's late -

Once more I'm beguiled by conspiracy -

Deep Throat -

I wear a long coat -

I know secrets -

August 2024

A still pool

I glimpsed the cathedral spire through the trees -

The five rivers met in quiet fields - 

A still pool reflected clouds -

Salisbury 

August 2024

Amongst angels

I wondered that day if we'd been amongst angels - 

Sophie and I were staying in the Rue Mouffetard - 

She bought a book by Alain de Botton - 

Her years were all before her - 

Later, we walked by the river -

I thought of Apollinaire, how memories were like hunting horns - 

How they died on the wind - 

How one day she might remember - 

August 2024 

Kelp singing

Whilst they were singing, spray stung my face - 

I saw a wild ocean - 

A thick rope tore at my hands - 

Swanage

August 2024

Pity goes

I'm reading The Grass Arena -

I can see the Boneyard -

My nightmare London - 

The neck of the bottle -

The vodka - 

The curved platform in the tube station - 

I know their names now - 

Those lurching figures -

Steal the Horse - 

The Dipper, Fingers Knox, Mad Rafferty -

They wake up to the terrible dawn - 

Memory goes, pity goes - 

August 2924

The high villas

I climb the steep mazy stairs of the high villas - 

Pausing on landings -

Breathing in memories -

Waiting for voices -

Swanage

August 2024 

Breathing his soul

Rob picks up his saxophone - 

The music had poured out of its golden mouth -

He had held it -

Close to his heart - 

Breathing his soul into each note - 

Swanage 

August 2024

Haircut

Sharp wings of the scissors above my head -

The rain falling on the street - 

The radio playing -

Wareham

August 2024

Leafletting

A Charles Trenet album in a window - 

A basement flat called Wuthering Depths - 

Dimly lit stairs - 

Wild gardens - 

Narrow alleyways above the bay - 

Pale flowers in a vase

Swanage 

August 2024

The room beyond

I push open the heavy gate of pale lichened wood - 

To see once more this hidden garden - 

The quiet house - 

The spell it casts - 

That high window - 

The room beyond -

Newton Manor

Swanage 

Still haunted

I've just seen Kensuke's Kingdom -

I'm still haunted -

Filled with love -

The Rex

Wareham 

Becoming somebody else

I'm in The Crooked Book - 

An Elmore Leonard next to my cappuccino -

I lose track of time here - 

I become somebody else - 

The Crooked Book

Boscombe 

August 2024

All beautiful

I held your hand -

I'd not realised how beautiful your hands are -

And the little scar on your cheek -

Hardly visible -

And your smile -

All beautiful -

Java

Swanage 

August 2024

Hobbs End

I'm watching Quatermass and the Pit on Legend -

Ancient Martian horror -

Doomed Cockneys -

Barbara whispering it's coming alive -

East Stoke 

August 2024

Jake's toys

Seeing Jake's toys without Jake -

Remembering his joy at the newness of his world -

His small hand holding mine - 

Making my world young 

Salisbury 

August 2024

In The Cafe Rex

A flat white in The Cafe Rex -

The art deco clock -

Falling in love again with Audrey Tautou -

The Cafe Rex 

Wareham 

August 2024

Watching Twisters

Watching Twisters -

Terrifying shapes in the air -

Or like the sky becoming a mouth - 

The Rex

Wareham 

August 2024

I need a golden thread

I need a golden thread -

Delving amongst these perilous reefs of words - 

Finding a foxed Andre Gide - 

A fragile Sylvia Townsend Warner - 

Books Afloat 

 Weymouth 

August 2024

A hidden wolf

I'm reading Zola - 

La Bete Humaine -

I dream a welter of dark dreams -

My heart is a wolf hidden underneath my skin - 

August 2024

I was led by each page

I was led by each page - 

Back to my own guilt -

How I took thoughtless delight in your body - 

Your breasts, your tongue - 

How I never reached out to know you - 

But hurt you -

Left a sadness -

A cruel goodbye - 

August 2024

Your flowers

I'm sitting under the apple tree - 

There are your flowers -

My hat on the table -

Words waiting - 

I'm barefoot -

Wearing a blue shirt patterned with thistledown - 

I remember your heart against mine - 

Your eyes starting to shine with tears - 

East Stoke

August 2024

We need the love

There were no sour shirts -

No Union Jacks - 

Only the green of the park - 

Joyous music - 

A young man dancing and drumming - 

Calling out we need the love -

Dorchester 

August 2024

He takes brightness

Jake hands me a monster truck -

Stands back - 

His eyes are the bluest blue -

Tess carries her heart with gentle hands - 

She knows my stories -

He takes brightness into every room she says -

Salisbury 

August 2024

Just visible

A quiche in The Salt Pig -

Rain against the windows - 

A memory of my dad -

His smile - 

When he held his glass - 

Sitting at that table - 

Like a small bird - 

Just visible in a limitless sky - 

The Salt Pig 

Wareham 

August 2024

Beguiled

After the Zoom, South Beach -

Pearled with seawater -

Beguiled by young Amazons - 

South Beach 

August 2024

The outside

I'm watching Event Horizon -

The dark is inside the Piranesi spaceship - 

The horror has come from the outside - 

August 2024

Heavy

I'm reading Heavy -

They shoot me when I fly - 

I have abundance -

I breath wounded air -

August 2024

The fear

That neck - 

That shaven head -

Like a thug in a Grosz cartoon -

The fear his time has come again - 

Weymouth

August 2024

The last game

The house quiet - 

Anne closing her eyes - 

Young voices lingering in the garden -

The last game with Wallace still set out on the table - 

The Old School House

East Stoke

July 2024

Throwing my years away

Playing Race Around Europe with Jane and Wallace - 

The house full of joyous noise - 

Throwing my years away - 

My bones light as air - 

Old School House

East Stoke

July 2934

I must read The Cherry Orchard

I must read The Cherry Orchard - 

It feels like I'm in the play -

I've finished the Quilmes in my chilled glass - 

Apples are falling from the tree - 

Paul looks severe, telling his story -

Anne wears a linen dress - 

Jane remembers her garden - 

Our house is a dacha in a Chekov summer -

The Old School House 

East Stoke

July 2024