FLOATERS IN THE SEA? (My poem about dogs in the sea at Mawgan Porth, April 2018...)

 Floaters In The Sea?

Bodyboarding alone between flags of red and yellow

Was confining but I feared a lifeguard’s bellow

Of harsh admonishment should I have strayed

Outside the markers and my embarrassment thus displayed.

I was bodyboarding at Mawgan Porth alone in the sea,

As the watchful minders kept a close eye me…

So I guess it came as an unpleasant surprise

Whilst surfing I was aware of some dog owners’ cries.

Balls from plastic slings were being hurled   

Into the sea near me, where the waves unfurled.

“Why here?” I groaned, “There’s a whole bloody shoreline free.

Why are your barking dogs retrieving right next to me?”

Were my eager, panting, canine companions classed

As bathers now? I was annoyed and aghast

And I wondered whether during my next ride there’d be

Brown canine floaters surfing alongside my board and me…

Pete Ray…

Mawgan Porth beach, April 2018. 

I followed the rules, surfed between the red and yellow flags and was very careful but then a couple of dog owners arrived and slung balls for their dogs to chase and retrieve from the sea. 

Unbelievably however, they did so between the flags too, 

despite the fact that there was a vast expanse of shoreline for them to exploit outside the designated bathing area.

Some people with their dogs amaze me with their 

ignorance…

Thanks for that, folks…