On the beach

                  Clinker Built

Hugged the chilly shingle shore lapping

Through the dense, morning fog chugging

Passing groynes, poles, posts and more

Particles cold to the beard clinging

To the bowler and balaclava we wore.

Rotting clinker built boat, Seagull engine puttering

Dirty fuel and feeble spark, Seagull engine spluttering

Split gunwales, rusty rowlocks, diving bags,

Pungent petrol vapour and greasy, oily rags

And boards sun-bleached soapy light

A frail craft heading for the Isle of Wight.

Stopped beside the stone sentinel round

Marvelled at this relic of Napoleonic times,

Listening for the modern dangers that abound

Nostrils flared, ears keen, eyes peeled.

No wave slap, no seabird squawk, not a sound.

A hoot!

Hark!

Distant warning.

Thick fog obscured view, a thick curtain

Held us in our own damp wraparound

Suppressed little marine world, certain

We were not safe; oh so vulnerable

From the Argonaut, juggernaut, tankernaut

Cyclops blundering along busy sea lanes distraught.

A vast grey tonnage above us loomed

Towering high, like a telephoto zoomed.

Dragged aside, made ragged our foggy veil, flimsy

Bulbous nose thrusting through the dim sea

Ghosting a furrow through the Solent.

Engine started, we turned from the bow wave

Only to turn again, our little boat to save.

Waited in that tanker’s wake.

Out to Bembridge Ledge we started to head

A section of the journey that held our dread.

Martin Delemare

12^th October 2011

The Old Lady from Bodiam

There was an old lady from Bodiam

Who wheeled a sheep around in a pram.

When she tired of this ewe

It went in a stew

So now she’ll be buying a lamb.

Martin Delemare

26^th October 2011

Marrakech

100 Watt

What no bulbs of a 100 watt?

What no bulbs bright and hot?

This supermarket is no good to me

I want instant light, don’t you see?

No, I don’t want curls.

No, I don’t want swirls.

I want bulbs of a 100 watt

I want bulbs bright and hot.

Not low energy slow murk

Stumbling about like a burk.

I want bulbs of a 100 watt.

I’ll go round to the corner shop

They buy bulbs, not this rot.

No low energy bulbs with mercury

They buy their bulbs from far Turkey.

They buy bulbs by the job lot

They buy bulbs bright and hot.

This supermarket is no good to me.

What no bulbs of a 100 watt?

I want instant light don’t you see.

I want bulbs bright and hot

I want bulbs of a 100 watt.

Martin Delemare

24^th November 2011