Last of the Gladiators ...

Thumbing through the war comic, I remembered when I'd been a paper boy - 

After my round, I'd spin the rack of gory wartime pages in Broadway News - 

Before he became a newsagent, Mr Ray had been a CPO - 

He'd sailed dangerous seas - 

The dialogue I skimmed today took me back to those early mornings - 

Ach ! - 

Eat lead kraut ! - 

Englander flieger ! - 

Himmel ! - I have lost the swine again ! - 

Look out skipper ! - 

Tail Gunners had it ! - 

Bomb doors open ! - 

Four down ! - 

I put down The Last of the Gladiators - 

The cost was dear - 

12.30

Saturday 1 September 2018

Antelope Cafe

Antiques Centre

Salisbury

Waiting in The Chipperies ...

The Chipperies was a whirlwind of orders - 

Two Haddock four pickled onions - 

Jumbo battered sausage - 

Saveloy and chips - 

Large cod two small chips - 

I waited in the sunburnt queue -

Three cyclists talked about hills - 

I remembered the beach - 

The zinging sea - 

The salt on my skin - 

The shadows of pine trees on the sand - 

18.00

Friday August 31 2018

The Chipperies 

Wareham 

Dorset

By St Augustine's Well ...

I saw the ribbon I'd tied for my dear dead - 

The water welled up from the loving earth - 

I cast my offering into the shining basin - 

I remembered the swallows above the harvested field - 

The gentle sky touching the ancient hills - 

14.00

Thursday 30 August 2018

St Augustine's Well 

Cerne Abbas 

Dorset

I've got a horse ...

I've got this horse - 

It's only got to do two things - 

Go down - 

Pauses - 

Come back - 

But when the rain comes - the form goes out the window - 

I don't know what those jockeys done - 

Those other horses I could have beaten them with 

pair of shorts on - 

13.51

Wednesday 29 August 2018

South Beach

Studland 

Dorset 

The heat of summer ...

My wet suit was a precious skin - 

It held the memory of my young body - 

I hung it from the apple tree - 

Water dripped on windfalls - 

In my heart I held the heat of summer - 

17.30

Tuesday 28 August 2018

The Old School House

East Stoke 

Studland 

Dorset

Tom Cruise can't die ...

It's all action Neil said - 

Right from the start, non stop - 

He filled my glass with red - 

Summer visitors filled the bar - 

They shivered in their dripping cagoules - 

An ancient asked for a Wainwright - 

We've been stuck in our camper van all day he said - 

Yet the movie made us forget the rain - 

There was crazy motor bike action in Paris, a sexy girl in leathers - 

There was a sidekick called Luther - 

There was double cross and treble cross, a purring villainess - 

There was fiery mayhem - 

There was Tom Cruise, dangling from a plunging helicopter, dodging merciless gunfire - 

Why don't you die sighed the lantern jawed assassin - 

He's Tom Cruise I thought - 

He can't die - 

21.45

Sunday 26 August 2018

The Rex 

Wareham 

Dorset  

The Halfords Apollo ...

A mobile bike mechanic will soon look at my Halfords Apollo - 

For years it was left unmourned in the ruinous shed - 

Mice had nibbled its sad tyres -  

Cobwebs festooned the frame -

Anne has rescued it from rusty oblivion - 

I'll ride it again, wearing a Red Indian headdress - 

I'll remember the first bike I ever rode - 

My dad, running behind me, holding onto the saddle -

My dad, letting go - 

The wind in my hair - 

The alley flying past - 

The new world before me - 

14.44

Sunday 26 August 2018