Hitting the Wall…
(The sea crashing at Mousehole, Cornwall & a shell exploding during World War 1…)
I was running I reckon,
Helmet pressing damp hair
Onto a confused, terrified head,
Itchy and lousy.
Stiff strap irritating the morning’s shaving cut
To bleed, incongruously.
I was dodging I realised,
Boots scattering loose dirt
Onto a bemused, petrified land,
Seething and drooling.
Bloodied puttee rubbing marching’s blistered heel
To raw, rapaciously.
I was rising I recall,
Rifle leaving torn fingers
Into black, smoked air,
Rising and hissing.
Tossed body flying at maiming shell’s detonation,
Too slow, heinously.
It was hunching I remarked,
Surf heaving white froth
Onto black, glossed rock,
Thrashing and slapping.
Deflected surge slinging the gleaming spray,
To cascade, tenuously...
Pete Ray
December 2012…
Spray struck a rocky outcrop of St Clement’s Island, off Mousehole harbour.
It rose spectacularly and seemed to fall in slow
motion, much as I would imagine myself thrown
upwards by a World War 1 explosion, all happening too slowly to quantify...
