The Sand and the Sky and the Ocean and Me

Stephen Whiteside · Post by **Stephen Whiteside** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:53 am

The Sand and the Sky and the Ocean and Me

© Stephen Whiteside 01.10.2012

I walked down at dusk to the edge of the sea -
Just the sand and the sky and the ocean and me.
The fish flew above me, the birds swam below.
The waves crashed beside me. They moved to and fro. 

A shadow above me turned twilight to dark.
I looked up and spotted a low flying shark.
Out of its jaws hung a very large bird -
An eagle, I think, and I thought, “How absurd;

“How absurd that this predator, king of the waves,
Should stop in a shark, most ignoble of graves.”
Just then a large orca, with very sharp eye,
Dropped like a stone from the depths of the sky,

Smashed the great shark in a brutal attack,
And flipped the thing over from belly to back.
The dead eagle dropped from the shark’s open jaw.
I thought I might grab it by beak or by claw.

Alas, far too skillful, the orca swept past.
He was handsome and nimble and clever and fast.
He grabbed the dead bird in his big rounded teeth,
Crashed into the ocean and vanished beneath.

I stood by myself at the edge of the sea -
Just the sand and the sky and the ocean and me.
The scene had astonished me (yes, it was grim);
I had no idea that an orca could swim.

r.magnay · Post by **r.magnay** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 7:05 am

...been at the drug cabinet again doc?.....

Stephen Whiteside · Post by **Stephen Whiteside** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:53 am

Continuing banana after-effect perhaps, Ross.

Neville Briggs · Post by **Neville Briggs** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:54 am

I think he's been at The Walrus and the Carpenter

Bob Pacey · Post by **Bob Pacey** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:22 am

Sounds like an old English pub " The Fox and Hounds Nev.

Good one stephen

Bob

Neville Briggs · Post by **Neville Briggs** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:50 am

The Walrus and The Carpenter is a very famous poem by Lewis Carroll, in which the writer presents dream-like images of the seaside.

Stephen Whiteside · Post by **Stephen Whiteside** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:54 am

Yes, I've heard of it, Neville. John Lennon was the walrus, wasn't he?

Stephen Whiteside · Post by **Stephen Whiteside** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:16 am

Neville, if anything, I had the second part of 'The Glug Quest' (from 'The Glugs of Gosh - C. J. Dennis) in mind.

You can find it here:
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/d ... quest.html

Neville Briggs · Post by **Neville Briggs** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:38 pm

OK

I have all the Glugs of Gosh in print.It's hard to follow because I don't know enough about those times to understand all the allusions, a bit like Gulliver's Travels.

ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

The Sand and the Sky and the Ocean and Me

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