We’re crossing the Mersey on the Dazzle Boat
aka MV Royal Daffodil. A breeze
is blowing from the river’s mouth. Sun lights
the Cunard Building like a palazzo.
We’re crossing to see the Giants from Nantes
on the Pier Head and at Mann Island,
along The Strand and in Canning Dock –
here by way of the Loire, Biscay Bay,
the North Atlantic and the Irish Sea.
We’re standing with tens of thousands of others –
a dense gathering by St George’s Dock Gates
of sardined and cheerful human beings –
watching the Giant Uncle, who is
four storeys high and has melancholy eyes,
walk – with the aid of gantries and pulleys
and costumed human counterweights – towards us
down Water Street to meet the Little Boy,
a thoughtful-looking black child, with his dog.
We’re crossing on the Royal Iris home.
Our bodies’ imaginations still tingle
with street theatre. Scores of Liverpool’s
serious windows are burnished gaily
by the sun setting over the sea.
Note: Royale De Luxe
By David Selzer