Rock fast
The grey green mass slides past.
We seek another element.
Wind rise Wave dip.
Air rush. Lung wash.
Feet off the ground,
Spray race a dance of liquid light.
Boundless we bound
The mist-bright open face of ocean.
Boneless, brain-clean, mind blown
On fenceless flight of freedom.
Susan sang and the bar fell hush.
Drink and gossip set aside,
Men stood to hear the rise and dip.
Money-coarsened men touched tenderness.
While forgotten hope tugged guts in
weary work-worn women.
The pain was too exquisite to sustain.
They shout the crack -
Another round, a joke, a jig,
For Holy Mary's Sake
Any anaesthetic claptrap.
One thing I hate is Halloween.
Next year I'll hang
A sack of soot above my door,
Stand back and wait
For some thick teenage gang
Of blackmailers to ring.
"Trick or Treat?" they'll leer and grin.
"Trick!" I'll say
And pull the string.