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
Selsey, a glistening jewel by the sea speak to me!
Tell me of the treasures, buried in your beaches
talk of the fishing boats, bolstered by the sea.
Whisper of the stony multitude rimming your waters
wail fruitless against the incessant wind
at all the lost fisherfolk picked from life's tree
shout loudly over the waves, beating on the shore
to try and make a mark against nature's sins
Now speak softly of the balmy sunny days
with wheeling children playing on the sands
speak no more of your turbulent past
forget the heart break and move on
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