Albufeira

Albufeira. 

Here, where my parents’ hearts still live

Present eternal in lights dancing seas

I navigate cobbles as they did then,

Careful and grey as they seemed to me when

They were alive and I younger than them. 

My heart, once theirs, both hurts and scorns

Others who come from the place we were born,

Fat pink Brits and their fat pink kids

Barking out orders for burgers and tea,

Parasites lacking in plain courtesy.

Here where my parents’ hearts still live

Breathless and spectral as boats’ lights at sea. 

A girl on a call to her beau back home

Calls him a cunt on the telephone

Promises him that she’ll cave in his head

The fucker’s a twat and she’s telling him now

He’s nothing to her and is useless in bed

Here where my parents were happy to be

Silently glad of their place by the sea.