Beached Poet

[Delta40]

I etch lines in the sand where
Indian tides lap to shore
and expunge my record,
my past.
Transluscent jellyfish
who in time become sapless
wash up along the coast line,
their silken tendrils
slowly baked to salty crisps.
I spot a beached poet
caught in tangles of fishing line,
hooks piercing her shell.
As her body bubbles and festers
with micro life,
like a shifting sand dune
I admire her imprint for a day
before I too am washed away.

[MystyrMystyry]

When I was in primary school there was a poem periodically doing the rounds:

The Addams family Started/When Uncle Fester farted...

But that's all there was - now whenever I hear the word 'fester' I'm instantaneously reminded of the following word and taken back to clear blue skies on the otherside of the window, and snickering in classrooms in an age of relative innocence - where farts were the single funniest thing - even before bums and teachers rapping rulers over unsuspecting knuckles (provided they were someone else's - dire times indeed!)

But farts are still pretty funny


Anyway - Delta - you've done it again! Not just a beach scene, but a grotty beach - another memory of smelly rotting seaweed and mucky water and occasionally a seal carcass, before we were all hurried back to the car and driven off in search for a better location

But to analyse - 'translucent' is a great word, which though strictly speaking isn't 'transparent' - in this case it does conjure up that glassy internally reflective glow of sunlight rays bouncing around inside a jelly (I used to wonder why they looked different to the ones on telly - now I know, thankyou Delta)

Salty crisps I especially like because it has connotations of fish'n'chips with vinegar, and therefore salt'n'vinegar crisps (a special rack in the chippery stuffed full of them for those too hungry to wait, and cold cokes and sarsaparilla, and the whole experience!

But the prize chips were the crispy little ones left over at the bottom of the newspaper - all salty crispy wonderful!

I like the shifting sand dune image - there was one beach we infrequented and I swear it was always a different distance to reach the shore - it was also largely disliked but my mother's preference because it was the least crowded

This was a great pick me up - not least because today for some reason it's cold overcast windy and rainy here (it was hot yesterday but I didn't make it to the beach)

[PrinceMyshkin]

There's a wonderful (if sad) seamless quality to this, such that no matter how often one goes back to some earlier point in it, one is carried irresistibly forward to the sad end.

[Jerrybaldy]

Brilliant Delta. It reminded me in places of our Jelta production of some time ago. Only better. As it didn't have my bits to drag it down :)

I love your 'sea' poetry. I know you walk next to it daily and this probably helps.

cheers
Jerry

[Delta40]

MM - From farts to fester. I'm glad you're enjoying key words in my poems :hurray:

Prince - Thanks. You make it sound as if the flow of the poem is like the tide

JB - perhaps a Derry Production might work better?

[Jerrybaldy]

Ahh.Its never good to go backwards Vegemite :)

[MorpheusSandman]

While I didn't enjoy this one as much as your Eggcorn Affair, it's still quite good. Perhaps it just didn't connect to me and my childhood nearly as much as MM.