Buddy Bolden's Blues ...

This morning I heard Buddy Bolden's Blues -

Jelly Roll Morton played his louche piano - 

I thought of my dad - how he loved Jazz - 

Before he left for The Dogs he'd listen to this 78 - 

He'd put on his jacket with lapels a mile wide - 

  

He'd adjust his bootlegger's tie - 

The Admiral Beresford would open its doors - 

The Class of 43 would gather round - 

Jelly Roll stroked the keys - 

A bluesman sang - 

Thought I heard, Buddy Bolden say - 

The nasty and dirty, take it away - 

I thought I heard him say - 

11.00

Sunday 14 January 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

A dark window opened ...

For a while this afternoon, making the fire, things seemed to be as they always were - 

I picked up pine cones in the garden - 

I watched Anne sip a Marmite bouillon - 

Then, as though a dark window had opened, I gazed upon a sorrowful memory - 

*

I saw again the room where my dad had been taken -  

He was washed by strangers, then left alone in a narrow bed - 

He had held out his hands, three times, wanting to be taken home - 

20.16

Saturday 13 January 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke

Dorset

This is an ending ...

This is an ending - 

An unmade bed - 

A chair - 

A glass of water left untouched - 

An emptied room - 

The echo of a breath - 

15.00

Friday 12 January 2018

Belmont Castle Care Home 

Portsdown 

The rooms would be empty ...

I read some verses from the Book of Daniel - 

The air I breathed was chilled by ancient memory - 

I gazed at the wall painting of the Saint, carrying the Christ Child - 

My namesake felt the weight of heaven - 

Outside the church, oak trees netted silence from the sky - 

A world I'd known since childhood was ending - 

The small house would be closed up - 

The rooms would be empty - 

14.00

Thursday 11 January 2018

Whitcombe

Dorset

Sheep grazed in a golden field ...

I stood amongst the birch trees - 

The sun was low in the January sky - 

Beautiful melancholy light fell upon the water meadows - 

Within the ring of quiet trees my heart was eased - 

Sheep grazed in a golden field - 

15.30

Wednesday 10 January 2018

East Stoke 

Dorset 

Weirdly familiar strangers ...

 

When my mum had gone to bed, I looked inside the wallet - 

She'd been opening and closing it all afternoon - 

She'd fallen asleep on the settee, clasping the worn scrap of leather to her chest -

Now she lay in her dreams, under sheets washed clean this morning - 

My dad had given up watching Morse - 

Soon he'd totter up the stairs - 

The two of them were becoming strangers to me - 

They were figures made up of shards of memory - 

Every so often, I'd see them as they were - 

Then, before my eyes, they'd turn into strangers once more, each one weirdly familiar, yet different - 

I opened the wallet - 

There was my mum, with me and my brother beside her - 

We're different people, too - 

When she was young, my Aunty Sylvie thought my mum looked like a film star - 

18.30

Sunday 7 January 2018

Staunton Road

Havant 

Hampshire 

QA's rammed ...

The paramedic was starting his night shift when he saw my mum - 

He said she had Community Acquired Pneumonia - 

He prescribed antibiotics for her -  

The hospital would be the worst place for your mum he said - 

She'd be waiting six hours in the ambulance before being seen - 

QA's rammed - 

In an interview, the Prime Minister said but of course nothing's perfect - 

21.50

Sunday 7 January 2018

Staunton Road 

Havant