Scarborough 11th March
Friday

The swirling carpet patterns
are like those in gran's flat
but on a grander scale
Royal in fact
Hotel Royal
or is that Royale
avec fromage?
Bryan's large black frame
Places a bag on the heavily upholstered seat
and drops into a chair
The Pol Roger displays itself proudly in the bar alcove
Ready to liberate us at a moments notice of vast quantities of money
Babs and I trip off to the Ladies
Climb the changing patterns of
thick pile beneath our feet
Through the door and into the make-up
Princess ante-chamber
Previously
we had been to Boots the Chemist
and are here to make a blue cross appear
or not
on a Pregnancy Test

Pol Roger has found a reason to be bought
we are caught
as the news is spoken
broken
I look at the sandwich menu by mistake
but you can't celebrate a baby with a sandwich

December
remember
Here with your mum to dine
on steak and red wine
Leaving gran in bed
just dead
old
not quite cold
In the home
died alone
with a 'Seaview'
Phew
Now you're back
back
at the RoyalHotel
well, well, well
Pol Roger then
and to mortal coil
A toast

"I've got 99 problems but the Bitch aint one..."
it's Saturday Nix bar
with adjoining Masonic Lodge
Through the window
tiny black shapes dodge
the rolling afternoon sea
like sharks
waiting for the waves.
Don't mention babes.

Earlier...
3 oysters and a tray of mussels had mingled in my digestive tract
Is happiness an act?
Up the steps from the beach
to the top cliff where the funicular starts
I reach the Royal
past the 'Mainprize' monument with its boy saved from the sea
by the Tea
Shop
and the salon called Julian

Morning
slept late
Bryan was up early walking
sunlight blasting across the bay
Gran's flat the usual container of containers within containers
Gas fire turned up so high
we singe the sheepskin rug.
Stole a hug with hub
in a Siberian bedroom and ice mirrored hallway
The clock tower outside still shows the wrong time
It's time it was fixed.
We walk down the South Cliff
past The Italian Gardens
Prospective parents discuss dogs
At length
It's cold
I'm told
Sea food next to the Life Boat.

Last night...
we dined at The Green Lizard
and later drank squashed frogs and brain haemmorages
Foetus is about the size of a plum.

Sunday
Robin Hood's Bay
Bituminous shales form
huge cliffs
like dark drifts
3D modeled water falls
down the wall
of black rock
Rough seas and gale force wind
Tap tap alone
at the stone
looking for an ammonite, right
There on the ground
found
a small piece of the strange spiral
Shock
it's heavy
Filled with rock
and so small
I take it
to place it

Later
On gran's bathroom shelf
on pink paint
next to the window box of plants
adjacent to the rabbit with cotton wool for a tail
with a few shells
above the toilet

The changes in the coastline formation
are unnerving
swerving
between geological sorts
Pre-historic
meteoric
bits of plastic and Jurassic
The cliff up to Red Car
it's a fair
walk
no talk
of Dinosaur eggs or babies.

On my finger is a ring of Whitby jet
Black and shiny
in a wooden, stoney way.
a monkey puzzle tree trapped in clay
Medieval mirrors
A dark refection
reflects noticeable
signs of affection
Protection
Fact and fiction
our friends'
American diction rings out
as we pace
Count Dracula's place there's a lot at stake Ha!

300 and something steps down to N. Yorkshires best
The pub
with the boarded up window
and Grub
and
Chocolate coffins
and 300 and something back up

Guardian newspaper
Monday March 14th 2005 quote:
"Sea search for daughter after mother and son die"
Photo caption: "The rescue team at North Bay, Scarborough, yesterday"
First news para:"A mother who jumped into the sea to save her three
children after they had been swept into the water died along with one of
her children,while a second one was still missing last night and feared to
be dead.

Lazy
Sunday afternoon driving across the moor
just after four
heading for the North Shore
overtaken by an ambulance
no entrance to Marine Drive
3 dead
1 alive
The car hire man saw them hanging
face down in the helicopter's arms
Pulled from the water
Mother not daughter
and son.
The sea won

Baby plum
has no idea
of danger, fear
ammonites
Things that bite in the night

The gas fire hisses as we wash the dishes
Warm as toast on the Dinosaur Coast.

For Barbara, Bryan and Baby. 2005