she stood where the waves turned to leave
a smiling line of debris on the shore
he looked back over his shoulder
a line of grey buildings washed away
when she waved the sea came in
when he waved back the sea went out
somewhere very deep inside
they were both crying
early poetry lol
the waves roll
as if great humpbacks
are passing through unnoticed
below the surface turmoil
within the undercurrents
singing their songs of the deep
blowing holes in our imaginations
we can only guess at what goes on
when their eye meets ours
a lighthouse beacon glinting
warning us of danger
now surging ever closer
with the passage of time
these great leviathans
who roll with the waves
dive to seek respite
from the constantly curious
the flesh and photograph hunters
who follow so relentlessly
to the ends of the world
across rolling waves
that never cease
like the tolling of bells
on ships lost at sea
I know where you have come from
but not what you contain
I know where you are flowing
with your toxic brew to drain
I wash in you and worship you
as millions often do
I watch as you float past me
to flush our waste into the sea
I know we hold the answers
to cure your deadly pain
I know I’m but a poor man
a large family to maintain
I hope that help comes quick
before our children all fall sick
I wish for purer waters
to cleanse us mortal sinners
I know where you have come from
I know where you will go
I pray you’ll send a sign one day
to help us change our ways
photo credit Vikram Sharma / Daily Mail Online
in the distance
Beachy Head
we all wore sunglasses
– enjoyed the sea breeze
talked about
this and that and the other
and later – when the tide
had come in on our thoughts
we shed some tears –
the seagulls kept me awake
I lay there at 5 in the morning
imagining swallowing pills
one after another
until the bottle was empty
my face white as chalk
the tide now far from shore
and in the distance
Beachy Head
I’m pleased to say that my book review of Virginia Astley’s ‘The English River – a journey down the Thames in poems and photographs’ has been published on Write Out Loud
https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=79707
Mother fed us plastic today
cut up into bite-sized pieces
she mixed it with some fish
to make the dish go further
because times were hard
since Father had drowned
the squall that took him under
one wild and windy day
left us but a single parent family
adrift on the gyre of uncertain seas
coming soon
