ECHO 27/11/05

Down where the dogs pull on the leash
Salivating into thistles
Where the slime still reckons on the stile
And you have to watch your step
Is where I spy.

Turning on the xmas lights in Tewkesbury – much pomp and thousands of people filling the high street, children and adults wrapped up against the cold, Mayors and Lady Mayors, local MPs and me in my crazy costume of day-glo green and pink with pursed lips standing alongside Santa and raised up in a cherry-picker above the crowd to switch the lights on and sing and basically josh about for ten minutes – from up on the machine you could see people were crowding right back toward the edge of town – once down again you mill with the crowd saying hello to the kids who are a little bit scared of this crazy man/woman with a mad Scots accent – then amid the crowd, old friends turn up alongside my beautiful lover and I notice a sense of place (community?) in me that I haven’t felt at this time of year for a long time, or perhaps anywhere for a long time, certainly not in London – small and secure, I am surprised -