Red Rose Recovery, a substance abuse recovery support agency, is the venue I’ve chosen for a sequence of poetry workshops. The writers gather each week, working to make poems themed around wolves. Some of these pieces will feed into the final sequence of sound poems and songs.
I was sitting around the corner clearing up after a session, filling out forms and getting bits of paper in order when I heard a voice I recognised instantly. I sat and listened, couldn’t hear the words but it sounded like somebody pouring their heart out.
I finished what I was doing, said my goodbyes to the staff. Then I went around the corner to the sofa space and he was there, with Titan the Red Rose dog on his lap. The dog is a big friendly lump, self-confident and sleek. Big enough to look after himself and to look after you too. If you sit on the sofa at Red Rose he will come to say hello. And if you want to tell him what is going on in your life, no holds barred he’ll listen and never walk away.
Foolishly, I said hello and it briefly broke the spell, my acquaintance nodded at me but didn’t say a word. He looked annoyed, perhaps I’d found him in his moment of vulnerability and that’s just not allowed in the scheme of things. I left them both there, the man holding the dog in his arms and telling stories of the street. A cheerful dreaming together in a strange place.
