Reflections of a People at Peace in the Capital
One of my favourite pieces. In the Naughties, days of long hair, freedom at night after discarding the pinstripe to board the InterCity at 17:47 after a mad dash from the office in a black cab through the rush hour, the drivers of all black cabs curse even more than their passengers the nightly Liverpool gridlock between 17:00-18:00. I’d visit London regularly, catching the InterCity from Liverpool Lime Street direct to London Euston.
The Naughties … not exactly the image my parents had of their junior lawyer son on a very surprise visit to Liverpool in March 2007 …
Then I’d taxi across town to my hotel in Paddington. Now it is evening. The Capital is calm and peaceful, pulsating, alluring, captivating.
I’ve always enjoyed London Soho and the vibrant life in Old Compton Street … where this piece was written and finished off that night in Paddington.
Up in Liverpool, a regular place was The Quarter off Luke Street.
Delightful meals, heavy or light, English or cosmopolitan, preferably the latter… and while writing I glanced up to see one of the team… each looked at the other with a what are you doing here? followed by a quick ‘well I never!’ look, and an even quicker parallel thought ‘well we both knew anyway, so there!’
Wonderful memories.
Frith Street - Old Compton Street
Café Venezia,
80F - 26C at least,
pavement tables, seated …
reflecting upon a City
withstanding six years of War
notwithstanding
the ups and downs of
politics and history,
giving us the freedom
we now enjoy.
For boys to walk hand in hand,
For girls to walk hand in hand,
so natural and unassuming,
as beautiful to observe
as boys and girls
walking hand in hand …
All Without Labels
Seeing Michael from The Quarter
with his boyfriend,
the lovely beam of recognition,
the youthful, slightly immature giggle
that his cover (and mine too) is now blown,
disappearing into the crowd.
Back in Liverpool, we’ll have a
quiet private laugh
when he pops over
to take the order -
each saying
…well, I knew anyway, so there!
Surrounded by beautiful people,
Tricycles galore, bells a-ringing
Visions of Shanghai,
Singapore and Peking.
Can this REALLY be London?
A Blackcab driver’s nightmare!
Remembering the days of
Tom and Gary…[i]
… horrendous Fifties
vicious home secretary
vindictive old sod
… an embittered student closet case?
It is so good to see
such freedom of expression.
We have this in
Liverpool,
Manchester too.
Each city, proud
of their Gay Quarters.
But let not these Quarters
become ghettos!
A 21st-century ‘Warsaw’
a bludgeoning of Neo-Nazi
neo-fascism masquerading
through its populist shroud
,
the stench of populism
wreaking every nostril
like sulphur, cyanide
Zyclon B
and Quick-Lime.
That IS my fear!
I feel like Ursula.
Well, in deed, Dame Judi
convey the locked-up emotions
of millions of souls
caught in the same dilemma,
a lady in lavender [ii]
Could I have another one, please?
Ay-up!
The hippopotami have gracefully
slid from the bank
into the pavement waters
te-he - this IS fun!
Beto - Edilberto
Beto - Oliviera - da Silva
Brazil and Rio de Janeiro,
Cococabana too …
”there’s music in a word!”
Bette Davis and Paul Henreid
Our own Now Voyager,
eighty years on.
How good, at last,
to feel Beto’s embrace again.
To see his deep dark eyes.
His beautifully tanned
Brazilian body,
The awesome raven
shoulder-length hair,
To hear his English
vastly improved;
His encouragement
His praise …
… you’ll never get fat Ken
… your hair short is so good
really suits you,
you look ten years younger.
Come for a swim with me
tomorrow at Oasis.
We did too.
Being part of the gay community
does not mean sexual immorality
in a churchy way …
And what would I rather have?
A life of pointless cheap
(well, not so cheap)
one-night stands,
or life as a responsible
member of the LGBTQ?
To be part of Gay Times [iii]
to write their legal column,
a lawyer from Liverpool?
Well, for sure, do I know the answer!
Then it’s late at night
when I’m always at my most
rational
logical
right-thinking!
But can I hold it in the morning?
I hope that G-D
does not make me
run the race that Arthur ran,
or Lottie before him,
Bette after him,
or Leslie now!
Not for me ancient age,
Never have been
Nor never will.
It is good to learn about the elderly,
I grant.
Even more so, essential, to work
with and help…
… … … to help those who are forced to
run that race.
But it’s a ruthless race
when I look at my many clients…
longevity forced upon them
Circumstances they did not wish for,
and thus receive from G-D
they’re quietly encouraged by Gen-zetters,
the highest award of all …!
Really?
That’s the hope.
That’s the lure
of religious compliance.
If religious bods
caught a glimpse
of my daily work,
of death certs on the desk… …
Karen, can you call out Mr B’s Will, please?
Bring it through as soon as it arrives,
and open the estate file, thanks.
Yes, in the night.
His family were with him.
All is well.
Do you see that?
That innocuous word
slipped in to make that ugly phrase …
COMPLIANCE
Religion requires compliance,
surrender of free-will
.
Leading by the rein.
Faith, on the other hand
requires no rein.
Trust walks hand in glove with Faith.
Faith is unconditional.
Salvation guaranteed.
Religion is compliance.
Religion is subservience
to that which mere humans
create, then pronounce their musings
to be a Deity!
Ermm … Enough of musing.
Let us catch the last train.
I might just make it!
The train too!
Hey, good to see you.
How’s it going?
Good thanks.
I’ll get the coffee.
Thanks. Cheers.
What’s on your mind Ken
Something’s bugging you …
Yep.
These damned labels.
To love is to love is to love, period.
The stench in my nostrils?
You ask …?
Simple.
Being made by you lot to think this:
For boys to walk hand in hand,
For girls to walk hand in hand,
must relabel as, well, you know,
well, slightly unnatural-like;
not nearly so beautiful to observe
as boys and girls
that walk hand in hand,
in fact, plain ugly!
But why?
There is NO difference.
Well, you see Ken
you have to understand that
normal and natural
is hetero …
Being, well, you know,
homo … is well, like Qatar says,
being damaged in the mind.
…slight sound of an impatient chair leg on the floor
… … hang on I ain’t finished … …
Ken! KEN!!
Don’t you dare walk-off
like tha … … …
…
Ah! The Open Air.
Thank Christ for that!
The stench of religiosity
and self-righteousness…
I‘m off to where I’m welcome
at all hours of the day and night …
bloody fundamentalist Christians!!
… and I paid
for these coffees too!
Damned cheek!!
And to think he even has
the bloody cheek
to say he believes in God! Hypocrite!!
Let’s go back to Liverpool!
Then over to Manchester.
And first thing Monday
I’ll have my 8 am coffee
at Copper Kettle
on St Johns Road,
Waterloo.
It’s been a cold weekend.
I suspect one or two
will have quietly departed
from beneath the sheets.
This wind off the Mersey
is a killer in this weather.
Still!
Maintain my faith
outside the box!!
Auf wiedersehen!
Ja! Tchüss!!
Bis bald…
24 December 2025
All Rights Reserved
© 2006 Ian Bradley Marshall
© 2006 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Written while staying in London, Paddington, 28 July 2006 11:23 pm
and brought into this troublesome third decade
of this runaway train of a twenty-first century…
[i] 1950s Britain - Rid England of this Plague by Rex Batton (October 2005)
[ii] Ladies in Lavender produced and directed by Charles Dance (2004)
[iii] Now the international GT lifestyle magazine
If offended by anything beyond heterosexual, then simply pass on by.
We are everywhere, and we also passionately fight military wars in defence of western democracy and western freedom too!
We always have done! And always will.
When no one’s looking, quietly turn the telescope around.
Gallery
© Poetry Manuscript 2006 Kenneth Thomas Webb
© Poetry Manuscript 2006 Ian Bradley Marshall
Looking through papers, this 2006 manuscript reminds me that I do not always write straight to the screen. It is comforting to see that twenty years on, the handwritten script is as important as ever. Handwriting capture the mndset in a way that no qwerty keyboard or smartphone can. This manuscript simply illustrates the framework of several of my favourites poems that have been developed over two decades and are now displayed on the website. This manuscript is signed off in my birth name, although the poems appeared in Idle Thoughts 2009 and Meanderings 2011 in my author name. KTW | IBM
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.
