All at sea,

All at sea,

In the doldrums

On a windless day.

Old men with expanded

Waistlines

Grapple with joysticks and toy boats.

Tacking back and forth

Along the esplanade

In search of a winner’s ribbon

And childhood lost.

Loners sit in isolation

Gazing out, beyond the horizon

Looking for mermaids

Dreaming of miracles,

Where sea sprites

Play tag with dryads

And it is always midsummer.

All dreamers harbour thoughts

Of grand impressions and majesty

Display their own brand

Of mastery

And are all,

In thrall, to the wonder

Of the Osprey

As it soars, up on high

Waiting for its moment

To fall like a stone

Down to the sea.

Lens shutters snap closed

As the evidence is shared

Halfway around the world

In the time it takes

For the preying bird

To reach its nest

And present a fine catch

To a hungry family,

As mermaids on the sandbank

In the bay

Play at being normal,

For the sake of anonymity.