Badstep

Mum packs picnic bags, To Badstep then,
Irsha street opens to the Skurn
the open shed, a blue-and-orange boat waits
silent alone pennies for the lifeboat
hurry past the path
sand into coarse big bushes
don't go there.undergrowth dark
concrete slope, clumps
rocks rise from shingle and sand
make a place amongst the rest
lay things down on a warm grey rock
Mum sits in the middle of a tartan blanket
sun-glasses, floppy-hat and a book

peeling limpets from rock, scooping out
fleshy rounds for crab-bait
empty scallops in a row
edges scrape skin red
sat on heels at the telescope:
soft green crabs wave claws

glide sideways, light wave
dark beneath overhang
fluffy bright green seaweed
Anemones wave their deep, dark skirts
red like blood, brown, dark yellow

sift fingers soft water
fingers slip gold grains
beneath nails

toes warm salt water
black-brown fingers feather slip
over small white legs