POLRUAN'S BUOYS & BOATS...

POLRUAN: BUOYS & BOATS...
JULIE ADLARD'S ARTWORK.

Polruan’s Buoys & Boats…

Polruan has been scrubbed clean of detritus.

No vehicles, no folks…

It lies quite dormant,

As infused blues encroach from the estuary:

The sky oozing, the pathways paling

And the saltwater creeping inside its sullen harbour,

A tide imminent…

A slipway has been embellished by patterned stone

And buoys hold vessels 

Fast, like kites,

As washing hangs discreetly between walls;

A ladder leans, a streetlight silhouettes

And driftwood paves the mud gold in a sullen harbour,

Its buildings contrite…

The sunlight has slapped amber on a pallid haven

And buoys wrestle nets, 

Ropes and tangled lines, 

As shabby doorways slump on white facades;

Gulls recede, roofs glimmer

And boats hunch, woodlice in a sullen harbour,

Like erratic signs… 

Pete Ray

May 27th 2017

Polruan in Cornwall, near Fowey, as depicted by Julie Adlard’s artwork…

The absence of humans or animals in her work is pleasing, despite the hints of washing, the barely represented gulls, plus the buoys, nets and boats…