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.