Westward Ho!

C runch into a 60p oyster
desiccated coconut flakes fire
from it's chocolate-bearded biscuit-clam
polystyrene biscuit-crumbs
cold ice-cream
snuggle marsh-mallow heart now
HOLIDAY!!
eyes gleam between
ice-cream and a floppy brim
so cool sunglasses -
steel rims
mirror lenses
that money I stole
browse beach shops
blue plastic rubbish
grabber in a clear glass dome
cricketers clump wood

a strawberry mivvi
cold blood-red glove
tongue caught by ice-beads
creamy white heart
melting
down the stem
sticky wood jokes *groan*
Flip the stick into the sea
a sea-gull's beak skewers
Laugh
watch girls in short tops
sweaty and slick with 'Ambre Solaire',
white skin winking over bikini bottoms.
Salt skin and ozone
dash to beat
the one-armed bandits at their game.

the Wimpy
under dark yellow lights
knicker-bocker glory
boiling up a funnel
blobbing out
sweet intense explosions
faces reflect fallout
Dig fast into false cream
scoop a rainbow heart
rich tasty layers
revelations thick fast and creamy
sugar rush
cold slug cools the core
stewed coffee made to last
"didn't you know"
"no, I didn't"
"Lend us a quid"
"You owe me 2 already"
Offer her my key
stub a butt in a cup
the laughing policeman
laughed and laughed and laughed

Your family's beach-hut
pork and luncheon meat sandwiches
fresh from plastic tubs
tongue is warm and slightly moist
rubbery and soft dark red, goo slipping off
a stringy piece that pulled the sandwich to pieces
revealing slippery pale yellow margarine
sluice down with cans of warm coke
dark, brown, sugary, flat
grin and plan in h airy blankets
warmness and fuzz
ask for money to play video tennis
You always won
when you weren't there
I searched
but all I got was four pound fifty.
in baked-bean heat
I watched you deepen
darken
The acne across your back Belisha Beacon
"It wasn't half as bad as my face"

sodium glare
open linen white parcels

vinegar and salt-crystalled crispness
greased hands
light gold crusts yield
burrow through giving flesh
mushing
hot white muscle
soft warm heart
That kid - squashing my chips as he threatened me -
you were bigger
your bear paws clutched around a weak pint
perched on your belly.
"Two pints of lager
a packet of crisps,
and a creme de menthe de frappe
for me mate's sister please"
"She fancies you, standing up for her like that"
"Did you spill my pint? "
Beer stained lime-green polyester suit
"No, not me mate, honest"
I outraged her - I don't know why-
loaded down to the plastic sand-buckets,
we retched off into the darkness
the long walk home.