Already thinking of us meeting

Reading Chekov's story The Beauties, I thought of you -

How I gaze at your hair, your eyes, your smile -

Sitting next to you in Java -

Longing to see your beautiful body again -

Holding your hand for a moment -

Feeling how warm your hand is, how it clasps mine -

You saying we must meet next week, catch up -

How all I can do is say yes, yes -

Already thinking of us meeting, of what we might say - 

Of being close to you -

Java, Swanage 

March 2026

Words were spoken in an unknown tongue

I heard a beautiful lament -

Haunting music -

Words were spoken in an unknown tongue -

My hair was scented with cologne -

Ŵareham

The Turkish Barbers 

March 2026 

Falling upwards

I'm listening to Rock the Casbah in Billy Winters -

I've ordered sardines -

It's low tide -

Gulls swagger on sandbanks -

A kitesurfer dances over the bay -

A salty wind blows in from the sea -

The sky above is cloudless -

I imagine falling upwards -

Lost in the blue - 

Billy Winters 

Portland 

March 2026 

The welcome of their doors

Spring sunlight on white blossoms -

 The blueness of the sky -

 The quiet of St John's Hill -

The gentle histories of its houses -

Their low ceilinged rooms -

The welcome of their doors -

Wareham 

March 2026 

Watching Vera

Vera frowns -

She's had no sleep - 

On CCTV the suspect looks like a malign ghost -

March 2026

The apples he ate in Alma Ata

I drink coffee with Peter amongst his books -

He talks about Russia -

The circus in Moscow -

Pushkin -

The Field of Mars -

The apples he ate in Alma Atta -

Watching Colombo

Colombo chews his green cigar -

Narrows his crinkly eyes -

He's questioning the murderous sheikh -

You may have something there he says -

I have to ask some questions -

March 2026

Each branch a promise

Rob plants the cherry tree -

He digs with a shining spade -

Each branch a promise -

A sweetness waiting for my tongue -

East Stoke 

March 2026 

Top boy

Rob still has the swagger of a top boy -

That bounce in his walk -

The brilliant mischief of his eye -

East Stoke 

March 2026 

Morse

Morse is listening to opera -

It's midnight in Oxford - 

There's been a murder -

It's raining -

Morse hides his heart -

Drinks another whisky -

Turns up the aria - 

Closes his eyes -

Murmurs bravissima -

Bravissima -

March 2026

After The Secret Agent

After The Secret Agent I dreamed of sicarios -

A sweltering city -

A police chief with blood on his carnival shirt -

Wareham 

March 2026 

The clarinet's spell

Rob wears a blue shirt patterned with white leaves -

I'm drinking Moretti -

The quartet is playing Duke Ellington's Caravan -

I'm beguiled -

Under a vast desert sky -

Lost in the clarinet's spell - 

Thinking of you -

Swanage

March 2026 

Annie was becoming smoke

Annie was becoming smoke -

More and more of her blown over the edge of the world - 

Just her voice left -

Then the brightness of her eyes -

Swanage 

March 2026

The shape of her slender bones

The women read their poems -

Afterwards, Fiona opened her arms for me to hug her -

I felt the sly promise of her body -

The shape of her slender bones -

The Mowlem, Swanage 

March 2026

Reading Little Grey Men

I'm reading Little Grey Men by BB -

When I read it, I remember Elson Branch Library -

Walking there from the house in Palmyra Road -

Late afternoon, after school -

Wearing my duffle coat, fastened at the neck, like a hero's cloak -

I remember the librarian's desk -

The dim light cast by the lamps hanging from the ceiling -

The shadowy corners brimming with words -

Seeing the letters BB on the green spine of a book -

When I read the book now, I'm thirteen again -

I see my small hand turning the first few pages -

My thin freckled wrist -

I feel my heart beating quickly in my chest -

I see myself asleep, dreaming, in my innocent bed -

March 2026

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