A slither of our lives
Sun blessed on shingle
A click that captures
Working days
And down-time spent
With friends and family.
Are we so strange to you?
The lives left long behind
Through time and tide?
Our lungs breathe, like yours,
Our muscles hold –
We are watching you watching us
Across time.
We look out
Seeing you from our photograph
Because a gaze will always go two ways.
In your heart
You must know that
We are not so un-alike
You and us.
Perched high on deck,
Leaning in –
A father holds his young one close
As you would too
You know it
You’re the same.
Young eye on telescope
We all look out to sea
We know in time
You will look back on us
Into this very frame
And that you will somehow
Still see yourself in us.
Peeling potatoes
Long curled brown skin
Falling gently into the bucket
A trestle table, where family sits
Cups, plates and forks
All waiting for the feast
Are you hungry?
Shall we wait for you?
Coastguards stand
In uniform
Light, tower, telescope
We want you to remember us.
Day trippers
Off a steamer boat from Hull
Edwardian hats
Each flower-decked –
With boaters for the men.
We queue to pass
From ship to shore
Then walk along the sand
Kids stood, cloth caps on heads,
Their trousers rolled
For feet on salt-wet sand.
Beside the lighthouse
Once more
We seem to state our case
Our focus pulled
To camera lens
The glass is set
A surrogate for you.
In it, we see
Your glinting future eyes.
