ANOTHER DEATH BY WATER

ENTRY FOR: LOVE THE WORDS 2022

Born by water – a happy Victorian facade

Seaside resorts – buried under decades of seagull guano

Harbouring visions – steel ruins crumbling into the cold North Sea

A life less lived – fluid and fleeting and frustratingly constrained

The Merchant Navy – escape, escape, escape…

Too young, too soon – sent home again, dreams dashed against the rocks

Reservoirs and reservations – landlocked lakes of longing

Working the canals – bird nesting and hedgerow greens

Something more – the tributaries and tribulations of love

Across the ocean – another chance at life

And back again – to grey puddles around grim ports

Docks dried up – industry destroyed

Hours at the labour exchange – years on the dole

Beachfront promenades – decayed or turned to rust

Hands of crags – weathered like his home

Castaway – mind lost amidst the waves

Babbling like a brook – words hard to form or come by

Taken to the lochs – the highlands were ne’er conquered

Foam sprays my face – ash plays among the waterfall

Once poured, cannot be collected – another death by water