Try to be myself

Can’t be anybody else

Put that on the shelf

Just keep your head down

Keep following your own road

You’re already there

Does a river flow

Or watch the water run by?

This bed never sleeps

Though worms may eat me

Flesh and bone won’t be alone

With their company

Gannets swarm the face

Guillemots balance in place

Between kittiwakes

Hang on to the cliff

Escape predators and lift

Purposeful eyes up

I’m just an old ship,

Ever since I’m cut adrift

Heading for the cliff

Flowers bloom and fade

Before they have the time to

Wonder who they are

The spring is over

Flowers succumb. Loose these chains

Summer has begun

A fork in the road

Should I turn back or go on?

Is there a third path?

Gannet clouds billow

Aledged Guillemots huddle

Full Puffin swagger

Let me take the strain

Against the wind and the rain

We can break this chain

Between slate layers

Pressurised shells turn to stone

Crush my steely bones

Seaward haggard gorse

Through the storm she holds her course

Steady patient force

Spread these ragged sails

The sea steadies shaking hands

An old sailors’ tale

Silent fractures echo

Forge foggy valley tunnels

Forever resounds

Beyond buttercups

Willow and alder pick up

The wind’s fierce gallop

Frozen headlight glare

Gangly lolloping brown hare

Follow if you dare

Inquisitive stare

Turns to reprimanding glare

Consumers beware

Go empty handed

A pocket full of questions

Itchy feet wonder

Ripples collide with

Wind driven shimmering waves

Make the surface plain

Where does the time go?

Taken by a gust and blown

To a pale shadow

Surely we are blessed

To miss those we love the best

Birds must leave the nest

I too have taken

A long meandering course

To obscurity