Pride - for Adrian Henri Freeman of the City of Liverpool
Liverpool Cathedral
solemn vast space
impressive oblong steps
leading to God
ahead
one hundred and fifty strides
over a marbled shore
to the altar
Six good men
strong and true
one with long red hair
and a dress forget me knot blue
grunt as they lift an ebony box
soft thud from within
Organ strikes the funeral march
leather shuffle as feet press concrete
scent of pine resin
mixed with overpowering waves
of cheap perfume
We dance forward together
Viennese horses
a slow stately rhythm of the dead
tensing our shoulder against the bite of each step
uppermost thoughts
don’t falter keep the rhythm
Adrian must not fall
By A. Ballard