(Morecambe Bay, February 2004)
Grey skies, cold and bitter wind
a share of a damp mattress
in an unheated room.
You follow orders from the brother
to the man who let your cousin die
in a truck approaching Dover.
Your parents wait back home
with nothing but pain and a photo of you
smiling through the English rain.
Shells held to your ear
murmured promises, but they are empty
here in devil’s beach.
Treacherous sands shift
impossible to know where is safe
where will suck away your life.
Speaking freely for Read Write Poem
reposted for Refugee Week
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Shells
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21 secret admirers:
Juliet, you made me sit up straight and read it again. So vivid and so poignant.
very poignant indeed. the poem echoes the voice of the speaker..
I remember when that happened, all those lives lost out there as the tides came in... how terrifying that must have been...
You spoke for them beautifully, Juliet...
It was a terrible incident, and my wife can testify to the treacherousness of Morecambe Bay, as she used to live quite close to it for a time. It was criminal madness, what happened there.
You remember it well.
Written with real compassion. Great poem.
Very tight images almost like someone trying to hold the pain inside! So well done!
Your parents wait back home
with nothing but pain and a photo of you
smiling through the English rain.
Says a lot. Glad to be reading your work again.
very powerful, very moving. My aunt lives there, her husband was involved in protesting what happened first time round and trying to ensure it doesn't happen again but the authorities do next to nothing, it is still going on, different immigrants, same tragedy heading.
good poem with excellent imagery, puts me right there.
wonderfully poignant!
(is that an oxymoron? anyway, love it)
so fabulous.
A damp mattress in an unheated room. What a powerful image.
A damp mattress in an unheated room. What a powerful image.
this is especially evocative, especially the last 2 stanzas.
OHHHH! Now, this is writing!
wonderfully written.. it makes me think of the numerous people that are sucked out to sea from the precarious "safety" of the northern califonia beaches every year...
This is so cutting and sad. Unfortunately it is a reality.
Gemma
Concise and intense. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Takes me there. Bravo. And I'd rather be a declared, not a secret, admirer.
:-)
Very compelling.
a powerful poem, the closing lines especially... beautiful
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