The voices of those who were invisible ...

Good Friday walkers ordered cappuccinos in the National Trust Cafe - 

Beach huts cradled memories of summer - 

Family dogs raced through the waves - 

I picked up a shell from the glistening ribbed sand - 

Soon it would be low tide - 

Sand bars would reflect the pale late afternoon sunlight - 

I placed the shell inside my pocket - 

The wind carried the voices of those who were invisible - 

16.00

Saturday 31 March 2018

Studland 

Dorset

The page I was looking for

I opened The Portsmouth Evening News -

Shoppers were drinking Americanos in Costas - 

I found the page I was looking for - 

I read the words - 

So it happened I thought - 

It really happened - 

I saw once more that narrow bed - 

New tears filled my eyes - 

09.40

Thursday 29 March 2018

The Meridian Centre 

Havant 

At Ian's ...

Give the eyebrows a razz ? asked the tattooed boy - 

He adjusted his baseball cap - 

My dad used to sit in this chair I thought - 

He'd get here one hour before they opened the doors -

It's the Navy way he'd tell me - 

Get there early - 

I looked at my face in the mirror - 

I hadn't slept well that night - 

The tattooed boy moved in closer with the buzzing clippers - 

Give them a razz ? he asked - 

Yes I said - 

He razzed - 

Fancy a tattoo ? he asked - 

A bass guitar ?

A magic rune ?

09.15

Thursday 29 March 2018

Ian's 

Havant 

Twelve days ...

I knew every corner of this twisting corridor - 

I'd walked along it many times - 

I opened the door of the emptied room - 

There was the bed - 

There was the pillow - 

There was no sign or trace of what had happened here - 

The long moments as night came to the Victorian garden - 

The hourly visits of the carers - 

The murmured kindly words - 

The gentle anguished face - 

There was only a residue of silence - 

A hole in the world which could not be filled - 

17.09

Wednesday 28 March 2018

Room 2 

Belmont Castle 

Portsdown 

Dressed in silence ...

My mum lies in her last bed - 

Her gentle eyes are closed - 

She's dressed in silence - 

06.37

Tueday 27 March 2018

Room 2 

Belmont Castle 

Portsdown 

01.31

Ten minutes before the phone call I felt and heard something in my thoughtless dreams - 

The moment my mum died, I felt it and I awoke - 

I lay there, turn Anne's phone rang - 

01.13

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Staunton Road 

Havant 

There's Chris ...

Anne stroked my mum's forehead - 

You're trying to say something she said - 

But I don't know what you're saying - 

Anne held up a photograph of my dad - 

There's John she said - 

My mum turned her head to look at me - 

There's Chris Anne said - 

Your son - 

15.38

Monday 26 March 2018

Belmont Castle 

Portsdown