Fade to black

I like films. I have an extensive DVD collection at home, but nothing quite beats being sat in a cinema as the plot unfolds before you with a bucket of popcorn in your lap and a drink resting in the arm of your seat.

The first time I went to see a film at the cinema was in 1985 and I was just 9 years old. My Mum had brought my friend and I to the ABC in York to see the Care Bear film, but there had been a mix up in the press and instead they were showing The Neverending Story.  I am sat here, with a huge smile on my face thinking of the memory. I enjoyed the latter much more that I think I would have the former, so it was a win win out of a mistake. Since then, it has always been an absolute treat to go to the flicks. Unfortunately, I don't go as often as I would like.


The Regal:

As she stands inside the doorway,
damp pinches at her nose
and creeps into her aching bones.
Dust motes sail
in intricate flight paths.
She can see the rows
of rotting seats,
some spilling their stuffing
where the mice and rats have been.
The carpet now an indistinct muddle,
no distinguishable pattern on show
due to fallen plasterwork,
where the ceiling had leaked 
and 30 years of dirt.
But like an old showreel
on a projector,
memories flicker to life,
at first in black and white,
through sepia,
into colour,
moments as real to her
as they were back then.
Oh, the nights she'd walked 
up and down these aisles,
showing people to their seats,
her torch lighting the way
and selling ice cream
by the tub
from the tray slung around her neck.
The night that the fire broke out.
A fallen cigarette 
had been all it had taken.
The day that it re-opened,
all shiny and new ....
almost.
Then there was the night she met her husband.
Such a charmer,
he was the type 
that her father had warned her about.
Or so she thought
at first ....
But like her husband,
The Regal was about to fade into history
and she couldn't resist the chance
to see the old place once more
before the demolition crews moved in.

Fade to black ...........


Thanks for reading. ;-) x

Don't forget that tonight at Cafe Dolce on Abingdon Street in Blackpool, is the Lancashire Dead Good Poets Open Mic Night. Get yourselves along, to read or just listen. It's an excellent night!