Remembering Us

Remembering Us

Written for National Poetry Day 2014

Remember the tide lapping at the shore How we walked on shingled beach War bomber fractured in the mudded flats Metal bones peeking at low tide Recall the estuary filled with birds calling You showed me the eddible weeds That grew there Warm salt, bitter Remember the old lady who swam Hat of neon pink, skin of blue There by the wall They build it as wave defence Black tar oozes and regular concrete blocks Bring to mind the pill box set inside Full of junkies’ needles And discarded love

Remember the storm that ripped the sky Spiking down and blazing the land How the sky turned dark Blistering heat and oppression Broken in the thunder The tent sagged upon itself I got wet But was denied the shelter of you I caught you a green crab By curved chimneys reaching into the sky Their roundness cloud factories You said it was edible You said it didn’t belong We put it back But I got a rash From algal blooms You drove me to town for my prescription

Thinking now Of how thisteled sand spiked my feet You carried me to my tent Where an adda lay in wait I scared it and felt sad We saved an orange ladybird The first we’d ever seen That night I was cold A whole in the canvas let in the night I thought of your arms And dreamt of tangled feet Throbbing footpaths greeted us In a misty summer dawn The mass of creatures writhed Lady bugs of all colours And not just dots but all kinds of shapes They made fitful crunches as we walked I gave up trying to save them Most starved, some bit And the sun set like a child’s painting With a moon that arose on it’s heels The whisper of the waves Lapped froth at day glo sandled feet You gave me a padded shirt To keep me warm It smelt of you

Remember the belt of rope you wore To keep up the cut offs frayed to faded fluff A sometimes shirt tight across your chest The skin turned bronze upon you Whilst I hid in sunblock and gingamed cotton There was no hair upon your chest Though you were older than me We went swimming in the sea I cut my foot on carelessness Oh my polluted sea I wept for the crimes of people You smiled I have always wondered Was it for me? My heart hurt at it’s beauty As to keep you I enthralled you in Greens and greys, browns and blues Blending together in landscapes only we saw I rescued a fledgling So sickly small It hopped on to me I was filled with hope Later laying in long sun dried grass You said it would be fine I believed you though I knew it could not be true And little rabbits stopped near us I caught them to pet You laughed that I released them Each with a new name That meant nothing but my love

Do you remember the bike rides, in the ink of night Drunkness a murmur on everyone but ours breath The smell of wood smoke as we cooked And chatted without care Subjects and philosophies dripped from our tongues The stars were pin pricks of ice In my spin

Remember how it could not last How they said we could not be The disapproval The anarchy We did not have the guts to try And the summer evaporated Autumn put dreams under glass We said goodbye So chaste the taste of you The scent in my mind A look of longing You held my hand And gave me a memory

Posted: Thursday, October 2nd, 2014 @ 8:44 am
Categories: Festivals and Events, Poems.
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