The Sea

The deep green sea waves to us as we pull up

Get out of the car and overlook it

Helllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

We call!

Hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Mr Sea! We came out here to see what we could see and we see you! Can you see us?

He doesn't speak back but I know from his crash and bang that he's looking up

You always say that I'm still a child

You're the one talking to the sea! I say

I know that I'm the only one telepathising to the sea

Apart from that little girl next to us

I smile at her in a motherly way

She looks scared. I smile again. She wavers.

I sigh, looking down over the cliffs,

No. I am not going to jump.

Even did I, odds are pretty even that I'd end up on the back of an elephant

Standing on a tortoise, standing on a porpoise, standing on the ocean

Standing in the sea.

I don't feel much like standing in the sea today, I tell you.

I want to dive in, for the first time, and have the salt sting our eyes.

You look acrossly to me, and I, knowing that you'll say something rude,

act the fool.

There's a bucket, and a big blazing blue spade.

I dig a hole in the sand for you, drop you in and watch, like Alice,

as you whirl into a tiny point on my horizon

A ship comes in, breaks the line and you're gone.

I sigh, not for the second time.

You're nothing but a drop in my ocean.

You tap me on the shoulder with your spade.

My castle is ready, I lift off the lid, I am, if a little sticky, pretty smooth.

Bonting, the special round smooth stone for whom I knitted that little jumper

Crawls out of his nest and crowns me.

Together, we will rule this rockpool.