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Battle for the beach

It is coming to that time of year

When battalions will assault the beach

Running marching plodding and tramping

Some dancing and lighting fires

Occasionally fornicating

An army armed with windbreaks

Mats dogs and towels

Bikinis shorts and trunks

Some with acres of flesh

Which wobble and supplicate to the merest movement

Others finely chiselled models

Of what is believed to be right to appear in front of a crowd

Tattoos and scars abound

Some fanned and tanned by wind and sand

All shades of orange

And of red

Some actually taking to the line of water

Half a mile from their valuables and cast-off durables

Some with body boards

An occasional rubber ring

Screaming girls jump up and down in rolling waves

By the end of the day when tide is in

And the sun has dropped its curtain

People are few

Maybe just a group of teenagers huddled round a fire

And all becomes quiet

 

The morning after the night before

On the battle-scarred beach and promenade

Lay the remains of stones piled up in heaps

The blackened bruised and battered bonfire bath

Of last night

A baby’s dummy

A dead half buried bathing mat

A forgotten ice cream cone turned on its head

Picked by thieving gulls

A bin overflowing with wrappers and plastic bottles

Soiled babies’ nappies

And a pile of stubbed out fags

 

Close to the water one right foot-tired trainer

Indifferent to the soft bubbling waves

Nudging and cradling it on the edge of death

All wait for the next wave to invade

That now not so secret beach

◄ Everything rusts

Speechless naked feet ►

Comments

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Martin Elder

Tue 23rd Jul 2019 20:15

Thanks to Lisa and Dorothy for liking and Thanks to Devon, Randy, Tom, Leon ,Rose and Don for commenting


Devon I love your description of mobbing that in itself is a great line


Randy I think you are right that sometimes it is a wonder that humanity has survived this long. there is almost a lemming like quality that heat and the beach bring to people


Tom you are a man after my own heart. I love going to beaches what evert the season or the weather, but as Randy said not in the height of the season when as Devon says it is mobbed.
there is a certain quality about a beach when the tide has come in and gone out again after it has washed almost all traces of the day before. Sadly this is not always the case as I describe.


Leon I would love to be able to tell you where this beach is but there is a degree of artistic licence here. I say a degree because whilst I have never come across this I know a friend who did. One of those coupled being a school teacher of the child known to he who had made the discovery

Rose what can I say . I always suspected you to be someone who would burst into song whilst walking the hills. There are clearly times when walking in the hills is more preferable. although I gather there is often a queue to reach the summit of Everest now!


Don although I have never come across fornicating gulls I am quite sure there are plenty of them around. They certainly make enough noise and are quite adept at picking at the remains of peoples detritus.



thankfully it is still possible in some corners of this country and presumably other parts of the globe to find a quiet beach. Probably with out any network of wifi connection Shame!

Thanks once again to all for reading. It s much appreciated as are yours comments


love to all
Martin

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Don Matthews

Tue 23rd Jul 2019 00:14

Martin, Leon's interested in
This fornicating beach
Can you indicate to him
If it's in his reach?

You can also mention
The beach is never dull
There's plenty entertainment
With fornicating gulls

Seriously, you've captured
A summers day at beach
But I like Rose go country
And get far out of reach

And enjoy the sounds of nature......




<Deleted User> (9882)

Mon 22nd Jul 2019 15:11

gives more than enough reason to head for the hills that I prefer doing and when I know nobody is about

belting out

# THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE......?

good work Martin keep on keeping on!



Rose ?

<Deleted User> (17847)

Mon 22nd Jul 2019 12:44

Martin, O master of brilliantly poeticising the generality of everyday life as you have once more with this great piece...erm....

re the " occasionally fornicating " where is this beach? ?

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Tom

Mon 22nd Jul 2019 11:39

Enjoyed this Martin. Paints a vivid picture of something I think we're all familiar. Hiking and hunting out the empty stretches of coastline and the occasional deserted beach has become one of my favourite parts of a holiday these day. Thanks for sharing!

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Randy Horton

Mon 22nd Jul 2019 11:23

You did a great job of capturing why I never liked going to public beaches. It's amazing humanity has endured this long.

Devon Brock

Mon 22nd Jul 2019 10:50

Martin - this captures beautifully the mobbing of the sand on summertime. In particular, "nudging and cradling it on the edge of death" takes the entire frolic into the notion of "live it up while can", as we all are laughing on the shore of nothingness. Well done.

D

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