My wife was sitting on a wooden seat

Next to the Royal Military Canal

She was wearing a white shirt

And dove grey cotton slacks

How cool she looked

I knew that underneath

She was wearing white underwear

In a couple of hours we would be in our room

At the Imperial Hotel sipping ice beers

I had chosen to stay there

So that we could wake up to the flat sea

The weather which I knew would soon end

Was very warm almost hot

So we would wear nothing

In the mellow breeze

As it entered our room

On the shelf we would find

An onyx phoenix

Which resembled a penguin

And would treat it as a souvenir

Of our visit to Hythe

We would watch it reinvent itself

Each morning

As we enjoyed coffee

Just after

The sun

Had risen