I. BREAKFAST WITH ALZHEIMER
Hello. Hello.
Swimming the synovia
between sleep and perception,
a voice articulates:
Hello. Hello.
I turn deaf ears to awareness.
Clamber back into dreamy silt-traps
where other endings are allowed.
Too late.
Beyond my curtain, long awake,
gulls with yelping laughter
jeer at contemplation.
Hello. Hello.
Unable to plan his rising,
an old man calls from the next room, stiff with confusion.
Hello. Hello.
It is a creeping death:
personality crumbles and faculties fail,
week by week by seven-day week.
Hello, he says. Hello.
* * *
II.
Away on a well beaten track
Dorset nears with appearance of gorse,
splashing the borders yellow.
Here is a folded soil.
Beneath its lynchets, a chalk spine
porous, soaks away our turmoil.
From paddled landings and whooping wingbeat
we nudge past gift shop fudge and crystal figurines,
hot on the trail of clotted cream, jam and scones.
Over downs to Melcombe Regis strand
where once town band, sardined in bathing machines,
honoured royal bellyflop - “God Save The King”!
Below the precinct’s mansard windows
baggy skateboarders displace shoppers,
with darkness gathering
to practice tic-tac manoeuvres.
Pigeons, at roost on stucco garlands,
rubberneck the umbrageous craft.
Grabbing, open armed, a moment’s solitude,
I flip through secondhand vinyls.
Higgledy-piggledy they recall
a gull’s wheel in my mind’s eye,
arcing after charity scraps
flung from the harbour wall.
* * *
III. A MOVEABLE FEAST
Over juice and cereals
with leaflets, family and friend
review the host of possibilities.
Sunbeams penetrate our narrow lanes,
warm the uncertainties
between Palm and Passion.
Strewn with gusted sand, the prom
in bow-fronted fashion
welcomes mismatched pilgrim feet.
A Maundy paddle chills
as mea culpa, hand on heartbeat,
I do trousers-rolled penance.
Children, grown beyond my preaching,
pursue their own balance
on newly purchased skates.
Across on the Pleasure Pier
fishermen choose their weights,
and casting lines, coax Bass to bite.
Parents stuck in dodgy deck chairs,
under a lonesome diamond kite,
watch over summer’s first castle.
Encased in gilt, the jubilee clock
chimes overdue renewal,
mystery beyond measure.
With fish & chips we end
like a lerret moored at leisure,
bobbing, faced both ways at once.
with leaflets, family and friend
review the host of possibilities.
Sunbeams penetrate our narrow lanes,
warm the uncertainties
between Palm and Passion.
Strewn with gusted sand, the prom
in bow-fronted fashion
welcomes mismatched pilgrim feet.
A Maundy paddle chills
as mea culpa, hand on heartbeat,
I do trousers-rolled penance.
Children, grown beyond my preaching,
pursue their own balance
on newly purchased skates.
Across on the Pleasure Pier
fishermen choose their weights,
and casting lines, coax Bass to bite.
Parents stuck in dodgy deck chairs,
under a lonesome diamond kite,
watch over summer’s first castle.
Encased in gilt, the jubilee clock
chimes overdue renewal,
mystery beyond measure.
With fish & chips we end
like a lerret moored at leisure,
bobbing, faced both ways at once.
iv - vi. 2001
Poetry Salzburg Review #9, 2006
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