It was really happening here
back in the sixties,
before it all turned sour
and the seventies made cynics of us all.
Back then you couldn’t move;
gangs on scooters and motor bikes,
the Mods and the Rockers,
had set the scene before us.
Then Year One came along, or so we thought;
the Summer of Love opened our eyes,
blew our minds, until we realised
that we too had been wrong.
It’s kind of quiet now,
the sea has reclaimed the place for itself,
like it always will,
as we shuffle off one by one
to some other place
beyond that wide horizon

copyright Francis Barker 2020