As if his glamour would never leave him

I'm reading London Triptych -

Thinking of Geoff -

How I first saw him -

At some party with Rich, one young summer -

 Wearing a flying jacket - 

Not dancing - 

Even then, that air of louche melancholy  - 

Later, reading the diary he kept of his travels -

The words he scrawled -

Pages still scented by the bidis he smoked -

The rides hitched with the American girl -

The months in Tehran -

The stony fields - 

The tea house gardens in seared villages -

The kisses of the tribesman near Kandahar - 

I remember him casting coins -

A white moon above our house -

The night air scented by ripe apples - 

Candles lit in the low ceilinged room -

Someone had put on Ricky Lee Jones - 

Geoff saying he'd cast The Well -

Wind over water -

He knew the names of birds -

In Yorkshire, he'd skinned a rabbit, made rabbit stew -

An icy stream ran past a field of thistles - 

We drank red wine listening to the rain -

*

Geoff rolling his bravura joints in the Sunbeam Rapier -

Guiding me through the wicked streets -

Parking outside a discrete door -

I was a wide eyed boy, knowing nothing -

I remember the dinner -

The laughter and the stories -

The glistening bottles -

Hardly knowing how I drove back -

Dazed by it all - 

 

Geoff inviting me to yet one more party -

This time with Anne, my new wife - 

My life then one of dizzying kisses, gaudy nights -

Wild swimming in summer rivers -

Arriving at the London house -

Girls wearing dresses made of cobwebs in the narrow hallway -

Geoff's boyfriend upstairs -

A dancer, dark and slender -

Music in every room - 

This last bright memory of him - 

When we were all beautiful -

Before years fell from the sky - 

Geoff dancing as though he were in a story -

As if his glamour would never leave him -

August 2026

Ward B3

I saw Mel in Ward B3 -

 I knew those beds, those stairs -

I remembered the gentle surgeon -

The joy I'd felt when waking -

Poole Hospital 

July 2026 

After Mavis had gone

Four jigsaws -

Hot Wheels -

The sadness of toys -

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

July 2026 

I still think I'll see you

I still think I'll see you -

Your bright face -

Hear your voice -

I remember stroking your hair -

Refusing to look at my watch -

Saying I love you very much -

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

July 2026 

Their bright hearts

Watching two of my darlings on the mega slide -

Whooping and whirling -

This sky -

Their laughter -

This moment with their bright hearts -

Too soon a memory -

Mega slide

Corfe Mullen

July 2026

When I saw you

When I saw you, I longed to hold you -

You were wearing a green dress -

I'd not seen you wearing a dress before -

I said how lovely you were -

I wanted to say far more -

And, later, we sat in a cafe with another -

And I was silent, looking at you -

Feeling guilt and love -

Java 

Swanage 

July 2026 

An excellent young golfer

I followed Wallace and Peter from green to green -

I felt the cool wind from the bay -

The shape of a memory forming in my hand -

Wallace's smile, his graceful drive -

Peter's words -

The brightness of the sky -

Purbeck Golf Course 

July 2026 

Anne swimming in the river

Anne swam upstream, barely stirring the water -

It was late afternoon -

The river flowing past gardens shaded by old apple trees -

The sun still hot in the cloudless sky -

Swallows flying above the water meadows -

Church bells ringing in the gentle town -

Abbot's Quay 

Wareham 

July 2026 

The bluest of heavens

Mavis listens to me reading The Tiger Who Came To Tea -

Her eyes widen -

They are as blue as the bluest of heavens -

The Old School House

East Stoke 

July 2026 

Wild joyous cricket

Sophie's gang play wild joyous cricket in the garden -

Wallace bowls a bouncer -

Paul hits a six into the churchyard -

Long shadows fall across the grass -

Later there will be a crescent moon -

A white curved bone in the twilight sky -

The Old School House 

East Stoke

July 2026 

Chilling with Wallace

Chilling with Wallace -

Watching The Chase -

Jodie's incredulous smile when she wins a grand -

The Old School House -

East Stoke

July 2026 

Implacable hoods

Jake and Otis were implacable hoods -

Enforcers for Bugsy Seigel -

Cornering me in the garden -

Drenching me with icy water from their pistols -

Washing away my years -

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

July 2026 

A Brio King

Jake is a Brio King -

A Play-Doh Michelangelo -

A joyous whirlwind -

The Old School House 

East Stoke 

July 2026 

Dancing in the wedding marquee

Dancing in the marquee -

The band playing It Must Be Love -

The wedding guests singing the words -

It must be love, love, love -

Imagining dancing with you -

If only for a moment -

Your arms around my neck - 

The two of us dancing to the song - 

Both of us singing -

It must be love, love, love - 

Tolpuddle 

July 2026 

Last looseners

Last looseners in The Samson Inn -

Tyneside Blonde -

Northumbrian Gold -

Alyson laughing -

Julia wearing a pale blue dress -

Remembering smoking on the dance floor -

Our younger selves sitting with us -

Martin with his German girlfriend -

Myself with flowers in my hair -

The Samson Inn

.Gilisland 

July 2026 

Harebells

I saw harebells -

Delicate pale marvels -

They were somehow rooted between the stones -

Stirred by a cool wind -

Beautiful and fragile -

Like precious memories -

Hadrian's Wall 

July 2026

Time falling on me

Standing by the Wall -

Touching these dark lichened stones -

Walking across a beautiful lonely land -

Time falling on me from the sky -

Hadrian's Wall

July 2026 

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 

The white cafe

I wore a blue shirt patterned with flowers in the white cafe -

There were sculpted trees in the dazzling square -

We sipped exquisite cappuccinos -

Concept 30

Malaga 

June 2026 

Forgetting everything

You kissed me on the cheek -

Then hugged me, gently stroking my back -

I said I love seeing you -

You said I love seeing you too - 

You looked at me - 

We were both silent -

I wanted to be in your arms again -

My heart melted with tenderness -

I thought of how brave you were -

How my heart races seeing your lovely body -

How I forget everything when I'm alone with you -

Husbands, wives, everything -

July 2026 

Sultry bedrooms

High above us whilst we drank Vermouth -

Those wrought iron balconies -

Apartments touching the hazy sky -

The opened windows of sultry bedrooms -

Malaga 

June 2026 

Thinking of J G Ballard

Along the beach were white villas -

When I saw them, I would think of J G Ballard -

Those seared lawns -

Those emptied swimming pools - 

de Torre Benagalbon 

June 2026