'I forget how much it changes me!' Amanda Langlot, after coming out of the sea with wet hair in Conte d'Ete.

'I remembered more trees here last time I came. This was a city run on firewood.'
John Simpson on EU-sanctioned Kabul.

'I fill a bottle of baby-steriliser with malt whiskey and pack it in my suitcase, not out of a dislike of Islam; out of a dislike of being told what to do.' John Simpson


Dream

Greet Gerard from double bed in living room, solto voce. He doesn't reply,

Outside, two huge tigers, orange, uncoil and spring and play and attack trees. Gerard is in close proximity to their bodies, almost against their sides. One fells a tall straight trunk. They are moving together, orange snouts (muzzles?).

Children. Two out of view. I keep an eye on them. We look out at the night, alarmed.

I walk to the house, visit mum. I cannot tell anyone what I have seen.

Amanda, shocked by what she has seen. At restaurant I look between her and her boss, see the false composure - mid-conversation - she maintains. She keeps up a front as he watches. He acts suspicious.

Jon, with far-off eyes. He walks towards me, begins to scale a tree. 'Don't do it. We used to. It's madness.'

20 lengths (including one front crawl) BOA pool.

Dream


Sally Edwards should have a job caring for people. A slumped boy needs a valve in his spine outside hospital. I talk with her, show elderly couple onto bus.

Tony Soprano drives car through doors and up stairs of house. Throws weight around. My rugby playing (?) days. I'll be late.

22 lengths (including 1 front crawl) BOA pool

Dream


On John Vose's Harley,
hands joined
holding its swallow-tail.

As we pull away in a tug of speed
nearing car bumpers
and swerving past them
I shout 'Help!'

Dream

My brother demonstrates menu he chose himself as my father and I eat.

Running to Italian restaurant to find menu I wrote myself. It is closed, until I meet someone I know, grown up. We talk, I bring it to my father and my brother, who haven't even noticed I've been long, despite the waiters now cleaning up. The menu is blank, double-sided, patterned. I have nothing to show. I don't explain.

Monday
20 lengths, BOA pool


Friday, The George
Beyond the Pale

Cead
Mile
Failte

Johnny We Hardly New You
Sylvestre
Dirty Old Town etc

Thursday

Rej Poetry Wales (v. positive)

20 lengths, BOA pool.

Submissions: New Welsh Review 'The Lengths', 'Rites', 'Fable', 'Nights'
10th Muse 'Towing the Line', 'In Tearful Weather', 'No Distance', 'Thoughts on a Northern Town'

2 Dreams


I punch Leigh in side of face.
He is stunned. I let it sink in.
Then resume the game.

The ball is thrown towards me from behind.
I cower on the floor.
I say thanks to Dave Ramsey (?)
after it thuds into the earth
by my head.

'I hate Leigh,' he says.
'He drives me mad.
He's battling depression.'

Later I am in the corner of a room.
I thank Leigh for taking it so well.
He lays a punch on the side of my face.

I get off the bus early
and am led to a restaurant.
Durga is eating alone at the corner of a table.
My father and I have already perused the menu.
I cannot find my speciality.
Dough balls with different ingredients
are in a basket at the entrance.
We sit in a corner, later, with Durga and laugh.

I am in a village.
The streets muddy.
As I walk home, passing a car,
the streets become unnavigable,
all mud, undifferentiated
from the sewage works to the left,
which bubbles as if with a flush
from time to time.
I follow the crisscross
of pavement and road, delineated
by lines like bicycle tracks in the mud.

* * *

I put down my water-bottle-like ball
run to the circle,
and kick a tennis ball out of touch.
'Well done,' they tell me.
I struggle to follow and they tot up
their points -marked in small red and black
balls in lines at their feet.

I wake up and resolve things with A.

Submission to Orange Coast Review - 'If People think', 'Watering', 'Handicap', Evening, Local' and 'Towing the Line.'

Quoi je joue?
Je joue de la guitare.

20 lengths BOA pool (as promised if Democrats won the House).

(heard as enters class): Matt, growin' the goatee - steppin' up!

Mid-term election nerves; Independent editorial: 'be careful what you wish for.'

12 lengths, BOA pool.