Dungeness

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copper burns across an endless sky
competing caws claim salt, surf and sand 
sailing high above slowly sagging carcasses 
long forgotten at the edge of the world 

buckled rails swim over a shimmering shingle sea
the largest of its kind, hinting at some other time; 
engines once chugged to billingsgate from this beach
herring bound for the cinque ports

and they say women dragged each boat -
pulled them down to that shore’s faithless embrace;
the muttered prayers of mothers and daughters
casting their men out on fortune’s dark waters

now nets, set for a tide that came and went, lay
mouldering among those collapsing clinkers
as if the fisherfolk just left one night, fled
granting the gulls sole control of that desolate dominion

their toil and trade, the legacy of our fathers’ fathers
still lays there on that beach; haunts that huge cove
rich history, like in so many places, fading away 
rotting, rusting, ruined

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Beata Agustin

Date: 11/3/2023 10:42:00 PM

Thanks for sharing this... exposing your thoughts through your unique poetic style. Meanwhile, I greet you with the love of the Lord, expressed by John 3:16 of the Bible, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Be blessed.