'BRACED QUAY': MY POEM TO ACCOMPANY A KIRSTY ELSON MODEL...

 Braced Quay…

(from the November image in Kirsty Elson's 2020 calendar…)

Doors like mouths, windows like knowing eyes,

For the cottages secretly remark

Upon the dull, steely sky and impending 

Bluster of bitter Cornish rain;

Marked with crossed baulks,

Stakes are bared and stark,

As if prohibiting trespass,

And are rooted to take the strain…

And life-rings like cogs

And weed-strewn rocks

And a slender ladder are all steeled

‘Gainst the rumble of thunder, the howling of dogs

And the rattle of gales upon rusting locks,

And from the wreckage and havoc a storm might wield…

Pete Ray

October 2020