Birds

an empty beach

footprints on the sand

bird claws

human toes and heels

trapped forever

in mud and sand

until the tide rises

sweeps the beach clean

Stonehenge

   sand henge

if only we could see the       builders

talk to the masons

see their mason marks

arrows and angles

that snub nosed C

the alpha beta

carved in stone

here it is moulded sand

hand and bucket

the builders anonymous

the capturers of crabs

the wielders of plastic buckets

this tower

the tower of the crab

pincers poised

to attack all enemies

the tower of the bird

a feather for a flag

and who now with the courage

to bell a gull

and pluck his plumage?

shells on the side

cockles and mussels

alive

alive eaux,

then dead

without water

dried up in the sun

sun and sunlight

the crab translucent

changed in his metamorphosis

his carapace

a lantern

a headlight

a lamplight

a beacon beckoning

a thousand years from now

who will remember

the builders and their names

the anonymous

come here for an afternoon

a morning

a day

come here to express themselves

in the shiftlessness

of shifting sands

and I

the artist

the cameraman

the eye who observes

who watches them

watching me

who snaps the photos

who pens these words

I as anonymous as them

without the castle

without my thumb prints

without this building in the sand

waiting for the tide to come

and wash

us all away

footprints

on the sand

footprints of gulls and crows

and only

the brightly coloured plastic

indestructible

remains