Charles Bennett
Cockersand
Looking for the abbey you let yourself down
into thickened light. These lanes were underwater
once: skylarks rise to the surface. The abbey
is a trickle of wall where fields fizzle out
a memory of sandstone spilling on the beach
as mussel shells are pummelled by the scutch of waves.
In the ruins of the chancel a damson tree smoulders
with fruit, and an old man, crazy as the sky
balances a deckle-edged cockle shell on each upraised palm.
Fit them together and he’ll smile
showing you the stones of the abbey
bruised with the chrism of damsons
by the side of secular cobbles
in the slim sea wall. All along
its languid curve, you’ll find the blurred
and dreaming face of Moses, or Peter
or possibly Christ. Night by night
they kiss the waves and hear
the softened prayer of surf.
Silent, on your way back to the car
you find the shipwrecked altar stone
listing in a shoal of weeds. The sun
in the prism of Plover Scar light
is a pulse of damson wine
as you pick up a pair of cockle shells
and fit the day together.
Page(s) 10-11
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