LAND'S END

        Land’s End

We have climbed down
To this solitary ledge,
Behold and merge into
The barren seascape.
In a cauldron of colour,
The enlarged sun
Slides silently down
A vast, mackerel sky;
Cuts a widening, whitening path
From crimson-dark horizon -
No watery wash of watercolour,
But nature’s deep canvass
Of heart-rich oils,
Snatched from a time
When we were artists and gods.

All shiny wet and faintly smiling,
Sea-sprayed hair swept back
From her lovely, if tired, face,
She sits beside me on damp rock,
Camera by her side,
Hands lying gracefully
In her lap.
New feelings,
Already permanent,
Will give much more
Than a photograph memory.

The old ocean
Bangs giant slabs of rock below,
Booms comfort-dark at a bloodied sky.
This time and place
Is my whole world.
There was no before.

A mental click:
This moment
Is with me forever.