THE MAY IMAGE: A NEW POEM ABOUT KIRSTY ELSON'S 2018 CALENDAR...

The May Image

(from Kirsty Elson’s 2018 Calendar…)

One's eyes are drawn to the white cottage

In the foreground

And the colourful marker buoys leaning 

Thereupon,

Tangled in strewn nets and reeling;

Like arthritic claws from the wrist of a corpse,

The white wings of gulls lift from the quay,

As a dinghy fidgets in the cove, feeling

Unbound…

One’s eyes are drawn to the white surf

In the background,

As it menaces the sea-wall, lashing,

Whereupon, 

Wrangled with sodden ladder and crashing

Like a venomous beast from the depths of the sea,

Its contempt spits at the pillar-box mail, 

As silent doors, like baulks, stand wailing   

Aground…

Pete Ray

April 2018

Kirsty Elson’s image for May from her 2018 calendar…

Love the yellow window frames on the white cottage, the threat from the waves and fading of the background, like this was a stage-set…