BOARDWALK HANGINGS... My poem about eating at Dubai's Creek in 2005, where restaurant umbrellas had been tied to poles for the evening...)

 Boardwalk Hangings…

(Dubai Creek restaurant, 2005…)

Waiters oozed round tables

Lit low by shapely lamps,

Bearing menus sandwiched between

Wooden grilles

Or gates,

 Balancing grills

For one’s plates,

On a gentle terrace

Above an evening Creek,

Where garish lights

On moored dhows

Reflected

Like they were stacked

Beneath cooling, deep waters.

Occasional abras sneaked past,

With Captains’ Cabins

Bearing a remarkable resemblance

To Ford Anglia seats

With stretch-covers…

Yet the unsubtle warnings

For illegal activities

Were stark

In the dark

Surroundings…

Umbrellas bound tightly,

From poles were strung

Like beheaded bodies, unsightly

But helplessly hung:

Crucified, 

Disarmed,

Mummified,

Embalmed;

A ghoulish

Morbidity

In a stable

Instability…

Pete Ray

(Abras are small passenger boats...)

Restaurant umbrellas had been tied to their poles like beheaded criminals. 

An unsettling outlook for eating, carrying a dire 

warning…

Only my imagination & dark humour, however!

Creekside, Dubai, 2005…