Coffee in Brighton
For LB
First the shuffled shopper’s fanfare
that rasp of chair feet on pavement
and then finding a place for my phone
whilst not spilling my lip-high coffee
which measures
like a spirit level
my ability to perform the simplest things
In that fifteen minutes of talk
your beautiful honesty made me admit
that I have been a slowed down fool
The loud gulls swept around us
as they have always done in Sussex
those opportune white vultures
which pick and steal the best bits
You said that girls had been feeding them
down in the Pavilion Gardens
I have been feeding mine for too long