Between A Rock and a Hard Place
Paradoxically, it is the shadow of the rock that reveals what lies beneath the surface of the pool, while the reflected light draws a veil across, its frayed edge billowing in the breeze. What lies beneath is living colour and rounded pebbles resting between the hard rock and the torn light…
And life hangs on to the exposed rock, as it emerges through the protecting veil of watery light…
And finally, the light slides away over the slippery rocks and comes to rest, a sliver of reflection left in the tiny pool below.
Rounded pebbles and dying colour are left high and drying by the receding tide…
And life and colour drain away with the last moisture from the salty sea…
And finally the weed is left to die, spreadeagled on the rock now moistened only by the falling rain.
Along with kelp ripped from the seabed, high seas throw up our detritus, lost or dumped, returning it to sender…
And slinging rope and netting ashore, the sea abandons it, noosed and caught carelessly over rocks and pools…
And finally, all this abandonment and loss, of nature or of our own making, is left to erode and rot, while life around it, still goes on.