Not Actually Being in Dumfries last Weekend


When I am walking up Queensberry St in low cloud
and tread on chips floating in an oily puddle,
I am actually on the Cierro Del Sol, staring through trees
at ponds like pearl, the roses and myrtle.

When I turn onto the High Street at seven o’clock at night
and neds are stoned out of their brains and jeering,
I am hearing the sound of nightingales in gardens
with the heat still singing and the sun setting on fire.

At midnight I am not leaving the Hole in the Wa,
fumbling my way through a huddle of strange dwarves,
but moving statuesquely through the lush blooms
of my imagination, heavy and sweet as jacaranda,

and the night will not end here, in light to heavy drizzle,
and a taxi that fines you a hundred quid for being sick,
it will not end here in damp sandstone and shadows
but surely with a last long kiss below an orange moon.

Jet2.com


Breakfast deal,
3 cans of Stella or equivalent for ten pounds,
the perfect way to start your holiday..

By a lidless window
my face sings with heat and wine.
Outside, the red coned wing carves
through cloud boiling thirty thousand feet
above pools of black enamel.

Buy a Jet2.com scratchcard.
Helps needy children.
End up with more than you bargained for!

I’ve already got that:
the steward looks like Philip Larkin,
and Cheryl has red lips when she fans
the scratchcards and one foot poised
as if to dance on recycled air.

Imagine that,
Your dreams come true
at the very rim of space, of desire,
of consciousness
and helping needy children too.

Beer comes again to Penpont. Then goes.

Gala week come and gone. Clearly rigged quiz meant that formidable team containing Jock Wallace and I had to settle for second place! Beautiful sunshine for the Gala Day itself. Unlike less classy festivals nearby there's no attempt to conjure up some fake history to justify the Gala's existence. Penpont clearly reeks of history and has no need of such inventions. When Shug Bryden and I were in London last year we saw the Map Exhibition in the British Library and the oldest Scottish map on show - from the 16th Century- only had one place name from the south west, Penpont. It was a stopping off point on the pilgrimage route to Whithorn, Kings stayed here on the Dail Righ, the Field of Kings.