I arrived in Hull looking for Larkin's “barge-crowded water." I found dredgers languishing in mud, the Slavery Museum and a pub called The Black Boy. I entered the pub for a pint. A girl at the bar turned to me, swizzled her eyes and said, “got any wheels?"
Later we drove out to Spurn Point. She talked about Hannah Arendt, the life of the mind and the banality of evil. I parked. She gazed into my eyes and told me about the beneficial effects of naked yoga. She winked grabbed my hand and dragged me behind a sand dune to an orange tent. She flipped the flap revealing Ben, naked and in a lotus position.
“Thanks for the lift!" she called as she waved me off.
On Spurn Head wind tugged my beard. Morose gulls hovered, waves sucked the shingle and I watched as ferries left for Rotterdam and Zeebrugge.