Found at Sea by Andrew Greig

Author:Andrew Greig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn

Shelter

Shingle then bedrock then up onto turf.

Our deserted repeat deserted island

– I mean it was abandoned twice –

exhales heather and salt in last light.

Mark makes the Whaler fast, thinking

certain announcements shake us to the keel:

overdose; landfall; with child. Checks painter

runs unsnarled through fairlead. Detail,

glory of micro-adventure!

Spray-damp breeks cling and grip, as

tent under one arm, sleeping bags

squashed in oxters, hump-backed under

food and drink, I stumble downwind

seeking shelter before dark –

a rusty blade

scraped back to its element,

grey-gleaming, whetted, of use again.

Coarse grass, tufts and hollows,

swells, peaks – but not moving.

I move.

That’s the difference

between sailing and walking.

Sheep scatter, terns peep and flash, curlews

follow their own lament downwind.

It is the hour of flecks and blurs.

Quest for the right place

is urgent, tripping, sequential,

as though one were moving through

not an island

but a poem of an island,

as in a way one is...

Are you gonna get that tent up?

Land dips and offers

shelter in lee of static wave.

Drop gear, hurry back, meet Mark

leaving Whaler grounded off high water,

lurched over for the night

as falling asleep we leave the body

lying on its side.

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