MOUSEHOLE CHANGE... A NEW POEM...

Mousehole Change…

Austere café, sturdy beyond harbour rails

Appears bland, uninviting and stark;

Steep steps descend onto a clutch of rocks, a sprawl

Heaped and cornered in Mousehole’s working quay…

Moored vessels nestle idly, no hoisted sails,

As two curious black saloons, parallel parked,

Tuck neatly below the high harbour wall

On the craggy stones of Mousehole’s working quay… 

Terraced dwellings could tell such tales

Of lugger, crabber, seiner, or bark;

Lobster traps lie awry and redundant, all

Scattered randomly on Mousehole’s working quay…

Nets hang over rails and walls in trails,

Looming like drapes, tendrils damp and dark,

Ready for fishing in the next sea squall

From the boats in Mousehole’s working quay…

A deli and café lures visitors beyond the quay,

Inviting and chic, its customers to enthral;

Steep steps descend to two paved decks,

For no rocks remain in Mousehole’s harbour today…

Two boats with outboard motors bob silently,

As vehicles lie angled into the lower sea wall,

Parked on the smooth harbour surface, its regulations to respect;  

And few mooring stones litter Mousehole’s harbour today…

Terraced houses with bright painted doors one can see,

Roofs yellow and stained by lichen’s scrawl;

No lobster pots remain now, a source of regret,

Merely warnings and orders in Mousehole’s harbour today…

No fishing nets drying, strewn incongruously

On walls, or on rails, after spilling their haul;

Plans for the Christmas lights display are currently being set,

Which annually decorates the famed Mousehole’s harbour today… 

Pete Ray

November 2018

Comparing an old image along one arm of Mousehole’s harbour, to my picture taken on 5th November 2018…

Changes are noticeable but thankfully not many…

The café, the tiny ice-cream shop, even the toilets are still very much the same…

The sign over the door to ‘Hole Foods Deli & Café’ says: ‘Zu’riel’ which apparently means something like ‘my rock is God’, suggesting some kind of religious use at one time…