Daily missive for Tuesday the 12th of April.

‘There is never just one way to look at things’

I can still hear you say it

As we sat at an outside table, breathing in fumes

From the infernal combustion engines

Idling at the kerb

Drinking coffee for hours

Righting the world even as it continued to do wrong

Wondering at passers-by

Rewarding recalcitrant dogs

With attention when they pulled

This way and that, barking loudly

For no good reason

Lunging at each other

As if they had been pitted together

In a winner takes all brawl

Intimidating old folks into moving aside

Even when they had the right of way

Old Bill Sykes knew a thing or two about

Mistreating an animal

Sometimes we can howl at the moon

It changes nothing

Eventually, it will wax and wane

Without a jot of help from anybody else

A moonlight kiss

Is something to remember

Even a clinch under lamplight

The twinkle of fairy lights strung up

Along the top of a picket fence can make a romantic

Backdrop into an assignation

But three hours talking over several flat whites and a muffin

With blueberries takes some doing

Rattan furniture can leave its mark

On the posterior

Old dogs can only be left to lie

For so long

There are so many comings and goings

Barely considered

When the conversation is intimate

Even the presence of a couple

On the lookout for trouble

Intimidating the oldies with their

Bullishness and overly loud voices shouting the odds

Talking over the competition

Demanding to be heard,

Struggle to undermine the proximity bubble

We had constructed

Perhaps they were hurting

In need of understanding

Lashing out at others rather than

Facing the truth about themselves, whatever that may have been,

Who knows

Perhaps I have it all wrong

There are always more ways than one

To look at something

If you put your mind to it

Although at times it is too demanding

To step out from one’s own

Perfectly formed bubble

For long enough, to give much

Of a flying fig.