Summer of ‘76
The summer of 1976, heatwave unfolds,
destination longsands.
shuggy boats in wooden docks,
Real life donkeys, ice cream kiosk bliss,
Candy floss on coarse boxwood sticks,
spun to order by the woman in a white coat
door held ajar, hand pushed out
de facto embassy number six.
dragons blood sacrificed on vanilla ice cream drips
sugar cone 99, just five pence more
Outdoor open air pool, egyptian blue and white painted walls,
iron bar handrails, ever present rusting stains
product of a relentless saline embrace
Old posters, Miss Tyne Tees, bonnie babies galore
memories fade and linger on peeling billboard frames
Never changing cold salt water,
garlands of bladderwrack flotsam linger
spuriously waiting
as you slip
your body slowly
into its cold embrace.
Fifteen going on sixteen summer holiday excitement,
turned up, volume full
exam timed out ; GCSE done in
pubescent hormones light up our very sinews,
gangling bodies too big of frame, fast or fleet
lose control to spill on golden sand,
failed manoeuvers that would make poor Sparta weep
Spitting sand, surreptitious searching,
high tide shoreline, stop.
cut off mid-blue denim shorts, red gingham bikini top
Friend of a friend, said she fancies you,
for certain it's a done deal!
After all she’d been there yesterday
as the girls huddled and they squealed.
For mighty olympian peacocks to display and preen
Mandated by the teenage code,
covetous glances were exchanged and seen
signals of a compact, by virtue of teenage love
for chance of a kiss tomorrow,
from the pretty girl called Valerie
who’s in the year above.