14 September 1805
At noon he nips away on foot (to dodge
admirers) over Governor’s Green and up
the ramparts, through the tunnel. At the bridge
he’ll hail the barge, be rowed out to his ship.
Huzzas rise from the crowds on King’s Bastion,
the mound they climbed to catch sight of the fleet
across the fort’s Long Curtain batteries
(which locals call Hot Walls) beyond the moat.
Even the Hero of the Nile cannot
leave shore from these high loaves of Portland stone,
that form a white hill, polished now by grit
spat out by Solent storms, serried in the sun –
but scurries down the beach to quit his England
before the flood tide ebbs and stains the shingle.