The Sea Wall Divides

17.00 Saturday, 17th January 2015

I sit on the Sea Wall, arms wrapped around hunched knees. Turn from the greens of landscaped garden to the wide expanse of mud and brown sea. Small brown crabs, barely visible, scuttle into holes, at the slightest noise: bark of dog and the brusque “hush” of a dray-cart pusher. Swallows, tilting left, flash cloud-white underbelly; tilting right, the iridescent blue of upper-side plumage. Curving round in choreographed dip over retreating sea, they feed mid-flight on insects. A shoal of ‘Four-Eye’ fish swim in nervous crawl; bulbous periscopic eyes peering above water. A renegade back-flops out. Proffers flash of silver-hue, falls back down into crowded water. As the sun fades millipedes climb the concrete wall. Belted in segments of yellow and black, their miniature pink legs patrol in slow waves. The fishermen sail in toward the koker. Their boats cerulean blue and laden with freshly caught fish: shrimp, banga-mary, cuirass, gillbacker and trout.