ROY BAYFIELD
TransPennine Express Meditation
Mystery sentences erase themselves leaving
little to cling to: train into tunnel with a rushing
crack, the child's reflection jolting away eyes
white; his sister says 'That was a very
naughty tunnel' then buddleia
forcing through the old mortar of the stone
abutment and many other things.
I attempted a contemplative sit. 30 minutes.
In the meditation period the man next
to me drank two cans of Pils: I already had
a hangover: time
converged. And a woman
in yellow jeans wore the words LOVE
YOU in metals discs on a belt while
a moving script of dim
lights advised TAKE
ALL YOUR BELONGINGS
WITH YOU but I didn't have all
my belongings with me or
maybe I did, maybe I did –
what was all the distant stuff in houses/garages/offices
anyway, colanders, brushes, diaries, spirit
levels inside dark boxes not here – but we were
passing the bridges rivers and roads of unstarted journeys.
Memories of unvisited parkland cut with the sluices and culverts of the
whole grid layout opened to a reclaimed and
unsayable statement, 'Don't say
that word' his sister says, the carriage
suddenly silent, as if
from some shock
moments before
but either there had been nothing
or it was already
gone, gleaming.
Roy Bayfield's writing has been published in the anthology BritPulp! and magazines including Star*Line and Neon Highway. His blog Walking Home to 50 was an account of a journey between two piers, Southport in North West England and Brighton on the south coast. In it a description of a visit to the anomalous town of "Argleton" brought about international media appearances and the creation of a special beer in a nearby pub. His experience of undergoing heart surgery during this journey also led to the collection Bypass Pilgrim. Roy is currently writing an account of a visit to the Six Realms of Buddhist Tradition.