Category: By The Beach

Bob Marley and The Shark

I hover over the big drop.
I know THE BIG DROP!!!
So many colours, so busy.
My background sound: crunching.
Fish nibbling on the reef.
A shadow suddenly takes form.
A black tip reef shark floats by.
Too close for comfort,
For me, not him, clearly!
I could touch his dorsal fin.
He looks at me, unperturbed.
There is no aggression.
No anger.
No urgency.
He is on island time.
As if he is humming a Bob Marley song:
‘No, woman, no cry!’ 

edited 22/02/2024

Sugar Coated Toes

These are variations of the same theme. Reef bleach of the house reef—Bandos Island in Maldives—was heartbreaking and I tried to express my sadness but also the joy of seeing all the life that still is there. So here it goes: Sugar Coated Toes Outtakes.

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Sugar Coated Toes 01: Despair of a dying reef

My toes are sugar coated
With ground corpse of reef
The bleach process has killed most of it
In a vast landscape of dead white chalk
Three anemones cling on to life
Each of which houses a tiny family of clown fish
No it’s not funny
My heart breaks

Sugar Coated Toes 02: We pay with our future

The freight ship with three enormous cranes on top
Covers three quarters of length of the tiny island
More stuff no-body really needs
More dead reef
We pay much more than dollars for our needs
We pay with our future

Sugar Coated Toes 03: Life prevails

My toes are sugar coated
Sand gets every where
Life gets every where
Purple anemones with orange tentacles
Move with the currents of the waves
Bobbing in and out as I float above
A family of clown fish

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Sugar Coated Toes 04: Happiness

Sugar coated toes
Ready to splash
In a turquoise cocktail
Palm tree umbrellas
And puffer fish ice cubes

A Southern Indian Ocean Beach

Two heads of cacao coloured hair
Four brown eyes
Four blue eyes
Two heads of sand coloured hair
All four are dressed in turquoise

Two spoken languages
Hundreds of unspoken ones
As they hunt hermit crabs
Caught in a red plastic bowl
Alcatraz for sea creatures
Who were not fast enough
For double twin power

As soon as the girls turn their backs
Tiny spiky arms emerge
An invisible push
Tumbling down comes the first crab
Shiny shell-house and all
A second, third, fourth, and fifth
They run for the hills

A foot steps onto a loose heap of sand
Somewhere in there was one of the escapists

Cornwall

Sea Haar
Wrapping his damp arms around me as a morning greeting

Legs in cold wind
Summers in Britain mean I am wearing a winter strength wet suit

Still my naked toes are in flip-flops
I insist on summer

I am scared of the deep dark blue
Even the striking white tiaras gushing ashore
Can’t help to soothe my fear

So I triple check that the lead of the surfboard
Is securely attached to my ankle

It’s time to work on my floppy baby seal move again
One of my feet always gets stuck

I am frustrated
Fighting the elements, my fear, and my body

Your strength and flexibility are there
Just your foot

We walk around the bay
The sun breaks through

The foreboding colours turn friendly
And suddenly both feed are on the board and I rush towards the beach

I am so surprised
I tumble into the water

The guys’ happy shouts
Are louder than the surf

Seaside-Summer

Thoughts fickle as sand in the wind
Dance whilst eyes scan the horizon
The brain in a futile attempt tries to grasp infinity
In reality even the ocean in front of me can only be understood in knots and hours of flight

The come and go of waves
Being knocked over and over again
So much energy
So little to hold against

Another grain of sand
Memories of eons past
A dragon figure-head rocking up and down
Changing its background rhythmically
Sky–Sea–Sky–Sea–Sky–Sea–Sky

A gust of wind moves the sand
In summer my brain is on idle
It gently moves through stories
Be and let be
What else can you do?