Clearly the way to go

Is to describe the Bristol Harbour Festival

A crowd of smiling people, taking a cheap holiday from frowning at bills and tax returns.

Walking up the concrete esplanade with ugly fat children running out before. All smiles, and therefore, not ugly anymore.

Just a hard-grained blue sunshine banging up from the metal grey water

Cut in two, or four, or six, by sweaty row boat crews sculling someone else's culture up the floating chop.

Whilst red arrows arrest the sky in loops of contrail contrasting air and high disposition

With burnt smells of beef and onion coming out of wheeled sheds chaperoned to the front by shiny SUVs early in the weekend morning.

The balloons go up, and all the squared eyes watch, whilst smaller scions ignore the up

There, and a lot of boats.