'TIDAL RIDGES': A POEM ABOUT MAWGAN PORTH, CORNWALL...

Tidal Ridges

Incessant rows of infantry

Walk to death,

Falling into trenches,

Like seeds into furrows;

Yet time rakes over

Landscape’s blots,

Until just the grief abides.

Persistent lines of waves

Surf to shallows,

Curling into trenches,

Like puckered corrugated iron;

Yet current smoothes over

Seascape’s creases

Until gone beneath the tides.

Pete Ray

February 12th 2008 

Marks on Mawgan Porth’s sandy shallows, like lines of WW1 soldiers falling to death.