What remains?

What remains?

Written during The Sea, The Sea writing retreat with Beth Kempton

You leave me gifts

like you love me

but never stay for long

and you can be cold.

I’ll admire the mermaid’s purses

and the bladderwrack,

the drftwood you have rolled

and refined so deeply.

Those plastic pieces

you abandon

are no good to me,

whatever the colour.

I will be one that cleans

the salty fringes,

spots the limpet shells

and the hagstones that you grind.

You will shape

the shore and the shingle

with your breath

and every hush.

I’ll still be waiting

at the strandline

for your timely return

under the moon.

~ Kore Sage