I follow a headland

I follow a headland

Built on fish scales

Reaking of weather

A storm of lost sailors

The drunken shanty

With dead eye horseshoes

Above the door

Of a smokehouse.

Ducking beneath the shadow

Of a rusted coal bucket

Finding Carter

Soiling the sea

Eating smoked haddock

Scrapping with Gulls

Is black lung contagious?

Do shrimp

Congregate

Just to swim in effluent.

The sand spits into my eye

Breaking the illusion

This is memory

When it is transportation.

Time and space

Are partial

To connectivity

Old sea dogs bark

From the shadows

Wolfing their dinners

Fish pie, mash and peas

How do they function

On a pension.

Despair

Is slumped in a doorway

Staring blindly

At itself

An out-of-focus headshot

Barely conscious

Of its appearance

In the comments section

Of local interest.

The sea is alive

With gossip

The breakers burst with

Cheeky laughter

Dripping with cynicism

Eroding my trust

Taking my feet from under.

Nothing is forever

The sand closes over

My fingers

It feels so easy

To disappear

All traces washed away

It is entrapment

An indulgence

An erosion of despond.