October : On the Beach

Beach Garden

At the edge of the curving beach

where shadows give way to sun,

is a modest sandy garden.

Tamarisk with long fat fingers

of a hundred tiny pink flowers,

late budding santolina, cotton rich

with yellow button blooms, while

purple globes of sea holly stand

proud above their pebbled bed.

Herring Gull

Close to a feathered corpse    

lying high-tide stranded beneath

the milk-white cliff, he tosses shells

and bladderwrack into an October

sky.  Curved beak agape, his long

harsh cry lingers on the wind,

proclaiming that he the king 

seeks a new mate, while the first

lies not yet cold on jagged rocks.

Lost Dog

A brindled dog lost, tail wagging,

pretending not to care, darts 

about the pools and alien paths.

Whining quietly, brown eyes sad, 

he lies nose on trembling paws, 

close by the water’s edge. Tries to

to join the playing children, but

rudely banished, he shivers, sighs

and pads sadly away into nowhere.

Sunset

They are all gone now, flowers

shrouded in soft evening mist,

herring gull with his new queen

up to the nest high on the cliff,

lost dog found again, warm again

in the clutch of the boy who had

wept through the long afternoon

for his faithful old mongrel friend.

The beach lies deserted and quiet.

Night

As the pale gold sun gently slips

into the arms of a dark bronze sea,

the faint echo of an invisible bell

is heard above the whispering

of small waves lapping on shingle.

Once perhaps it was a summons 

bidding the faithful to prayer, 

tonight only the hoot of an owl

responds:  ‘Sleep now. All is well.’

Illustration by Liz                  Naomi