• The old woman peels fish with pebbles,
• then lays them on straightened weeds:

• I'll boil this fish in sea water, will add weeds
• It doesn't matter really; I only want to be outside
• when Spring comes.

• She points at the cottage on the rocky edge,
• says it's all ready - the chalk cat on top
• of the chest of drawers; inside the first drawer,
• the broken alarm clock wrapped in a bandana.
• Next to it, a gull's egg:

• It's bigger than a hen's. A white shout
• I shut the drawer; can't shut my eyes at night,
• come here, outside, where the sea scales
• darkness and leaves me in moon bones
• Spring is a good season to die, whiter
• than a gull's flight.

Paula Grenside