Oare
We walk into the village
before opening time.
A storm is brewing,
grumbling and flickering
across the levels, over the sea.
A straggle of unexceptional houses:
and already we fantasise
about throwing in the day jobs
and living here on crafts and literature
– maybe there
in that tiny weatherboarded cottage –
selling knick-knacks to tourists,
hoping to make our mark.
Beer, crisps and peanuts;
then north again,
towards the marshes of the Swale;
past a small creek of mud
and boats strewn like plastic toys.
Ahead, the dark sky still threatens.
The buildings, more sporadic,
more ramshackle;
smallholdings give way
to sedge and reed bed.
Eventually the track peters out,
like a couple who abandon their ambitions,
or an old man who forgets mid-sentence
what he’s saying, his voice supplanted
by peewit call, the endless sea.
Page(s) 47
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