25. The Sea’s Defence

Could one continuous bank of earth create such difference?
On the seaward side the salt-marsh
blooms with sea lavender, sea purslane, sea aster and heath
between the mud-lined channels,
where, with an unconsidered step
anyone could sink into time’s vagaries.
There are no foot prints here
except for those abandoned by the feather-frail.

And on the land-ward side, the firmer ground
disloyalty of well-established fen, where cattle graze
between the deep and clean-cut drainage channels.
Clear water from the heir loomed fields sports mace and marigold
Alexander’s introduced by Romans as a cooking herb
all regulated by the gated sluice.

And upon the land’s edge, where sea-weed’s brilliant green
is strewn like mermaid’s hair across the sands
with razor shells and oyster shells
surrounding all, eternal dissonance
the restless sea
the world’s well.