'CLUSTERS' : A NEW POEM ABOUT MOUSEHOLE, CORNWALL...

Clusters

The absence of colour strips Mousehole

To an angular cluster

Of dwellings and chimneys

And pallid walls on slopes;

Missing sails turn fishing vessels

Into a vertical cluster

Of masts and clinking 

And sodden lines of ropes;

Silent figures near The Ship Inn

Form a grim cluster

Of boatmen and fisherfolk

And narrow lives of dwindling hopes…

Pete Ray

November 2016