Peruvian Etchings on Seaham Beach (For Jeremy Kyle)

This pebble?
This silt?
This mouth?
What passes for time?

Stealing snow from my hood?
Sanding down driftwood?
Etching?
Scratching?
Clawing?

Meer Kat eyes out to sea
Unrelated particles
Reacting to an unseen resonance
Isobars in neutrality
Ignorant of longitude
Lateral of notion.

Gulls cry like babies.
Hands scrape shapes
Some Nazca/Palpa reference
Like us
Lost civilization
Found next time round
In the scrapings of a trowel.

What passes for time?
This mouth?
This silt?
This pebble?




James Oates 8/9-12-08

Since When?

In the tremor of a blink
The iris dips
And alters hue
It dawns
That everything that once was
Even when it wasn't was
Wasn't what it once was
Homogeny is not my blueprint
Forgiveness
Not your design.