ENGLISH HERITAGE

ENGLISH HERITAGE

Returning home, I find my parents
rebuilding the house.
The mouth of my childhood is wide open!
and a dentist in a hard hat
is chiselling at my milk teeth.
I take off my metaphors,
wipe my images on the tongue
and walk inside
where my parents are covered in dust -
‘It’s not what it looks like!’
they insist, but I break down
and land in a heap of nostalgia.
Where now, other than the photographs,
will I take refuge from a world
so intent on change?
And where now, more importantly,
will they erect the blue plaque?.

CLOWN

CLOWN

I’ve behaved as badly as I can
today bobbing in and out
of Jacket and coffee and games
of pool that I can never take
seriously and always end up
lampooning with a Buster Keaton
impression usually getting up
on top of the table and putting
rather than potting but I can
honestly say that tomorrow
I too will get a job and become
far more attractive.

RETURN TO SPLENDOUR

A thousand barbecues, ignite!
I’ve never seen this town so alive,
everyone has been spilled.

Here on the Esplanade,
they’re taking off their coats
one at a time -
yes, the coastline is
unzipping.

The new neighbours seize the moment
and wash their car -
they have the cleanest car in England
and I know them now by their wet distorted faces.
They know me better, perhaps
better than anyone,
they’ve seen me dancing through the window.