How to be both
Happy and sad
Dark and light
Dull or bright
Fight or flight
How to be both
Here and there
Anywhere and everywhere
With moon and sun
With angst or fun
How to be both
First and last
Start and finish
Where or whereabouts
In or out of pocket
How to be both
Superficial yet insightful
Tormenting or peaceful
Surf god or seagull
Spaceship or rocket
How long could I stay here
Without a field
Or branch
Or tree
Waiting for the big boat
Moving slowly
Across
A bounded sea
Rising as a tower or platform
To dwarf
The white sailed
Sailing boat I see
We have a time for the crying
It is a gift
Gifted
To the all of us who are to be
Although for now
Preservation
Is our perseverance
For our final shoal of reverie
Friday morning on the seafront
Ocean liners on the ocean line
Out there are the Channel Islands
The accident soon became the design
Once again to thinking of setting sail
Or of boarding the thirty-minute flight
Such is the hopeless old romantic
With his penchant for second sight
The hearing is the hearing is the hearing
Away from most of all distraction
With the foretaste of nights of satin
This item craves signs of satisfaction
For stories of hotel bedrooms
With birthday parties for the girls
Step after step down the catwalk
Her smile for your life seriously unfurls
On the bench for Eddie Northway
Sat looking out to sea
With sunlight on the ripples
Of the memories for you and me
Waiting for the news of the future
A momentous turn of life
With the deity of the past behind us
Remember: the two-step of Johann Cruyff
I dare not, do not, say not
With hopes to occupy the mind
I am not, here not, say not
With thoughts reaching for sublime
Why are, why do, why why
With hornets, wasps and bees
The warm sun is the reason
For promenades by palm trees
There’s both a lot to remember
As well as nothing at all
There’s a dog no longer barking
It’s the rise before the fall
Look behind to the beach huts
And the ferry waiting for the call
It’s the out of season vacations
For those pensioners on a roll
You might forgive me the blue skies
After a lifetime reliving Love on the Dole
I could be a porter on a mail train
Or a diarist for my old friend Adrian Mole
