Tide Mark
Life goes on…
Everything is up from way down here,
below the pier.
The wooden pilings, iron filings,
coal and coral,
Rotten cabbage, cats gone feral,
putrid sewerage.
Dropouts drop in to scout for salvage,
hidden treasure.
Hypodermics,
kit and caboodle,
Newgate sweepings, old pot noodle.
All left above the watermark,
from East End
Docklands National Park.
Alright below
the low-tide line
which doesn’t touch the Sepentine.
And yet to the kids around St Paul’s
it’s really
just the beach;
The shit-hole, hell hole,
no-holds-barred
that we call
Blackfriars’ Reach.
Brilliantly composed, darkly entertaining. I loved it.
Mike
Thanks Mike.
This is one I really enjoyed writing…
cheers,
Jim
Loved the way it reads, the rhyming is perfect. This reminds me of the pictures one sees of Victorian children hunting along the shore. Sue.
Hi Sue,
Thank you for the positive comment. I’ve always been intrigued by the prospect of a ‘beach’ along the Thames, in the middle of The Smoke.
cheers,
Jim x
Sounds like exactly the place to avoid mate. Thanks for the warning. Very vivid images conjured here.
Cheers, Bud. You never know what you might find down there, though…
Thanks,
Jim
Really enjoyed this, Franciman. 😀
Hi there,
Happy as I am to receive your comment, I’ve just been reading some of your stuff and would rather you were posting than commenting. Enjoy your work very much…
cheers,
Jim
Hi Trevor,
Really happy you liked this one. When writing it I had this Rap thing going on in the background. Strangely, it was a two minute write. Maybe that’s how it comes across too.
cheers,
Jim