THUNDER CIRCLING He needed to talk to someone.It happened to be us.His rolled tobacco slipped from his fingersas he went over events fifty years before.The harbour, Singapore, thunder circlingand lightning flashing across the sea.A merchant navy man,sitting on deck with his mates,watching a free show.‘lf they’s could only ‘arness that energy’. The same bar two…
Landmine
Hawker Siddley Argosy: My Back Pages
HAWKER SIDDLEY ARGOSY Improbable squares, steel-framed frogshopping from aerodrome to aerodromethrough an emulsion sky, wool clouds.You could hear them from miles awaybefore they’d flash over the barnand into my wide open six-year old eyes. Other times they dissolved throughthe outhouse plastic corrugated roofinto distorted birds that rattledlike boxes as they headed southtravelling so low and…
Diving for Change: Thames Valley Texas
DIVING FOR CHANGE Below and to my right from this window a Volvo lorry crunches gearshredded leaf, dust and gravel trickles from bumper and wheel-arch. The digging of the new pool has been going on now for two weeks. Yellow digger-buckets mouth the park’s soil and turf into lorries that rumble off, indicators flashing, down…
The North Field: Thames Valley Texas
The North Field You lying exhausted in another room, me taping,trying to drag some of the past with me.Three stories up in West LondonI think of old friends, forgotten journeysand the cracked ceiling reminds me of iceand cars swish beyond the stained curtains. You say I never talk, never explain thingsclam-up, freeze-up, a tight-lipped Englishman.You…