27th July. A thursday Sitges. 2017.

 

Brilliant light.

Sounds coming up to us. These narrow streets

funnel the noise and amplify it somehow, though not aggressively.

Just daily life. Unaffected.

Take it or leave it discourse.

The rubbing along of a more or less polite society

It is music I think. An opera. Small voices confiding.

A mother and daughter. Then the strident tones of a trader.

Rumbling of wheels on the flagstones and sweeping

that sometimes imitates the washing of the sea.

Sea rising in sympathy with troubled air and the moon

and dancing with feathered caps as it races toward the shore

where it rests and tells stories to the incoming waves.

Then they all re-group somehow with an inward suck

and slink back to the great body of water before returning

with fresh stories that only fishermen can attempt to interpret.

Then hasty steps and furtive steps. The drill of some pneumatic tool

and of course the declamatory siren of a car alarm from time to time.

Patrice and I. We in our pools of quiet reflection are content

to sit naked and inconspicuous yet so close to all of the life going on.

We make plans slowly and wonder if we should have another cup of tea.

Sin Street. Sitges. 2017.

 

Narrow streets criss-cross

in a town that once was

heavy with the swaying legs

of mariners and anglers home from the sea.

 

Now it is swollen by the lustful stares

of men who harbour thoughts of other men

and women too who have a passion

for one another’s views.

 

Rows of seats line up facing each other

far from ambivalent

readied as if to joust

with anyone in a queue.

 

The pedestrian is fair game,

not so much for molestation

but the hungry appraisal of passing trade

discussing weights and measures.

 

Sin Street seethes in any light

at any time of day

but comes into its own at night

when darkness swells the fever.

Dash

 

Make speed you timid beast

go quickly, to a blur

on loping, elastic legs

outreach the other ones for fun

and track back to Bob and Madge

for their calm containment

until another contender dares

to put you to the test

and is left, inevitably, in a flurry

of losing dust quite off the pace

and panting, deflated. Bemused.

Whilst we human types applaud

the grace and dignity of flight

Go Dash. Embrace the wind

and wait on uneven terms

for another one to take a tilt

at your flashing title

Go Dash.

Always

All visions are, as dreams

elided by the sting

of disappointment

They find horizons hemmed by lesser men

who languish at the frontiers

of all I ever wished for

so,

I glimpse perimeters

always

and know that I am contained

within this spirit world

of bloodsurge and ego

peeping at the possibilities

that sustain hope yet

always

a constraining hand will

by its’ magic

clench and keep me shy

of all that light

That Promised Land

always

Expectant

I want more

That is my condition. My dread

I am the eager hunger

a lust of want on margins

imagined, never seen

Of echoes, shreds of neverbeens

dying coals and finite seams

that refuse to manifest.

Perhaps it is all pornography

it’s crooked lines on pure white paper

and stains on beauty where promises

were never kept.

What is left is a crust

of tears, wind-dried

a legacy that anthropologists will find

and with it kindly trace a history

from something

I never knew