The wide sky stretches
cormorant wings
to the offshore breeze
blackheaded gulls drop
to pick and prick
at silver silt
two avocets
step daintily
in the shallows
a shelduck at the water’s marge
swivels a questing beak in mud,
tracing out its name
an oystercatcher pips and pipes
in swoop and wheel
across the saltings
while one small skylark hurls
its heaven-bent heart of song aloft
and aloft
I reach the valley of the dunes
I breast the rising hills of sand
and at the crest fall to my knees
last man alive in this sounding void
of beach
and sea
and sky.
Peter Ualrig Kennedy
previously published on this site 18 Oct 2020