Friday, 30 April 2021

The Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa – Pretty as a Picture

 

The beautiful Downshire village of Clerembeax St Giles was situated to the west of Abbeyvale located between Grace Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa which was a popular venue for wedding receptions and the grounds made a great backdrop for the wedding photos, and it was on the well-manicured lawns where photographer Ian Dawes had Carrie Hinds in his view finder and her dark eyes, sultry and steamy flashed him a side ward’s glance from beneath the white lace of her fascinator and in return he gave her a more appraising look altogether, focusing on the curvaceous figure beneath her conservative bridesmaid’s dress.
He got her in the frame of his camera, he was there to photograph the wedding party, but for every photo he took of them he took three of his secret love.  

 

Her eyes flashed up again, a lingering languid glance which spoke volumes of her being very much a woman and not the innocent girl the virginal white attire suggested she might be.
She was the centre of his admiration, and he was hers as they saw recognition in each other’s eyes, no words were spoken everything was intuit and with amative study and libidinous perusal, the girl was his object of pulchritude and he was her beloved swain.

 

All at once the moment was gone and the spell was broken, though only temporarily until their reunion, for they were not strangers first met on those church steps or the Hotel lawn.

However, the last time he had looked in to the eyes of the young woman in the white lace fascinator, she was wearing white silk and lace of a very different kind, and his fascination was not with her headgear, and that night in the Hotel he would be fascinated all over again.

 

I COULD NOT WEEP

 

I could not weep

As I sat at his side

His hand once as strong as atlas

Now to weak to grip

Weak like a babe

More so

 

I could not weep

As I watched the frown

Furrowing his weathered face

Grey, expressionless

And as his frown faded,

As the morphine takes control

 

I could not weep

As he lays motionless,

Breath shallow

Silent, almost

But for the occasional groan

Beneath the morphine

 

I could not weep

At his deathbed

As the monster within

Crept through his organs

Hastening the end

For him and for itself

 

I could not weep

As his muscles relaxed

And the pain was no more

As he exhaled his last

And his soul passed

When he was at peace

 

I could not weep

Not because it wasn’t macho

Nor for lack of love

It was perhaps numbness

Or a need to be strong

For family, others

 

I could not weep

Not when he was diagnosed

Nor when he released his grip on life

Not even at his funeral

I could not weep

When my father died

Wednesday, 14 April 2021

WE MET AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY

We met at the Christmas party

And I instantly fell in love with you

The prettiest girl in the room by far

Dressed in shades of Christmas hue

And when I heard your joyous laugh

The blissful love in my heart grew

And though we had never spoken

Nonetheless I somehow knew

That for every Christmas to come

In my future I'd still be loving you

So, I look back, with you in my arms

As my Christmas prediction came true

LOVE IS..... # 4

 

Love is…

The golden thread

Binding us together

Uncanny Love Tales – (21) A Day at the Lido with Maria

 

When I was growing up in the sixties we lived in North London and one of the things I really loved to do was to go swimming and we were quite well fixed for pools in the area, and I would swim until the chlorinated water left my eyes red and sore.

But of all the pools I swam in, the one I loved to swim in most of all was the Durnsford Road Lido, especially during the summer months.

It was only sixpence to get in and for that paltry sum you could stay all day long, which of course I did, and I would spend as many days of the holidays there as I could, playing with friends and watching Mad Jack stunt diving off the high platform.

When I first started to go there it was just a joy to spend all the time in the sparkling water.

As I got older, I would come to appreciate the many delicacies on which to feast the eyes upon, delicacies invisible to the eye of the eleven-year-old boy who first visited the pool.

 

Whenever I arrived at the Lido there was always someone there that I knew, so even if I went on my own, I could quite easily hook up with someone.

Some of them I knew from school others from where I lived, and some were friends of friends.

I always took an old penny with me in the pool, and we would take turns diving down to retrieve it or a group of us would play tag, it was basically the same friends and the same games every visit.

 

On one particular day when I was thirteen, I went with a friend called Keith and his cousin Simon and after spending about an hour diving for a coin we sat on the side of the pool and watched the leathery skinned Mad Jack perform one of his eccentric dives from the high board.

Almost before the ripples had subsided Maria Saunders and her friend Lucy ran up behind us and pushed me and Keith in the pool and a chase ensued resulting in Maria and Lucy being thrown in the 8-foot end and then being thoroughly dunked.

This was the normal exchange between the four of us and it had been the way of it since we were first years.

This time however when the four of us played tag it was different.

I eventually caught Maria after a long chase and during the ensuing grapple something happened that had never happened before during our horseplay, I got a hard on.

I didn’t know why; we had played that game hundreds of times before without as much as a tickle in my trunks. 

My first reaction to this unwelcome intrusion was to let go of Maria and swim away, but the erection merely faded temporarily and as the game of tag continued it returned with a vengeance whenever I got in close proximity of Maria and that afternoon, we seemed destined to be in close proximity most of the time.

After the third attempt at swimming away failed to diminish my woody, I abandoned the tactic.

Afterall holding onto Marias voluptuous form whilst sporting a boner was not an unpleasant experience and if she didn’t mind then I certainly didn’t.

I realise looking back that Maria was well aware of my discomfiture and made sure that she rubbed up against me at every opportunity.

Our clinches lasted much longer than normal, and Maria must have been aware of my erection prodding at her nether regions but she was clearly not repulsed by it, in fact it was her more than I who seemed the most reluctant to desist from our embrace.

And so, like an eager confused puppy humping a stranger’s leg I had my first ejaculation in the presence of another human being rubbing up against Maria Saunders in the pool.

Happily, although it was the first, I am pleased to say that it was not to be the last time with Maria, in the pool or out of it.

Wearing a rather smug expression Maria stayed close to me the rest of the day and afterwards I walked her home.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

 

When we first started dating

I had no expectation of forever

I was content with the immediate

And enjoyed each moment with her

All the mundane chatter

And flirtatious wordplay

Leading to the longing looks

And the sentimental words of love

Back then time evaporated,

Hours seeming to pass in seconds

And in all those moments

Precluding our life together

The one thing we never had was silence

 

But that was then and this is now

And now the silence deafens me

No more chatter

Words are used miserly

As if endowed with great value

And not to be wasted

On flirtation or sentiment

Words, when used, now bite

With venomous spite

Moments now last an eternity

Clocks that once seemed to race through time

Run now in slow motion

Her contemptuous looks wither me

Longing now for my extinction

ABIGAILS TALE - ONE DAY VERY SOON

 

In the comfort of the coffee shop

Nestled into a sofa

Sits Abigail, homesick and sad

As she reads a letter from home

 

She knows the sadness will pass

And sooner this time than the last

It strikes each time a letter arrives from home

With news from those she left behind

 

Her parents, loving and kind

Her sister annoyingly lovely

All her friends of long standing

And of course, him

 

She left her hometown

The only place she had ever lived

After her marriage failed

So, she is building a new life

 

Away from the people and places

Away from all the familiarity

That reminded her daily

Of her failure and her inadequacies

 

So, she lives in a new town

And is making new friends

Discovering new familiar places

And trying to forget past mistakes

 

She has joined a new church

Where her angel’s voice

Sings in praise to heaven

And she is finding peace within herself

 

One day very soon Abigail will sit

In the comfort of the coffee shop

Nestled into a sofa

And not be homesick and sad

 

One day very soon Abigail will read

A long letter from home

And smile at it contents

And not feel the old pain strike

 

One day very soon

Abigail will let herself be happy

One day very soon

Abigail will forgive herself