Bournemouth 3

Streeteasied or Rightmove.co.uk-ed,

a kernel of thought starts up,

well Mary Shelley is buried here,

if it was good enough for her -

and then would she have died,

if she knew there would be a

"...well-preserved polychrome Gothic shopping arcade”

in Westbourne and that electricity would be

even more monolithic than she imagined

and there would be

lights strung up there still

and that me or someone else like me,

who did alright, who has no reason

to come home,

but could,

would, blinking through the drizzle,

at the golden glow it has smeared

recognise an exhale,

becoming a murmur,

becoming lips forming shapes

becoming mantra -

Ah, nice gift shop,

I mean yes, we could, why not

and why?