Scattered Pearls (Poetry)

There’s a woman on the seashore
in the early dawn’s pale gleam
hair spun damp with beaded sea mist
she sits lost in some vague dream

He has come to watch the waders
digging sand worms while the day
has barely stroked the drowsy wavelets
as they crawl into the bay

With a sketchbook and a camera
he records the untouched scene
long-legged birds crowding the shallows
low sun bouncing inbetween

The lone woman separated
by such distance hears the click
of the shutter — turns to face him
in the hazy light’s strange trick

He is spellbound by her beauty
drops his camera, pen and pad
and he walks down to the rock where
she is waiting cold and sad

Then he kisses salty teardrops
from her perfect ageless face
as she melts into the water
disappears without a trace ...

Was it something he imagined?
Deaf to every seabird’s screech
in confusion he slow-plodded
up that stretch of empty beach

All unaware his lack of hearing
kept him from an early grave
she couldn’t lure him with her singing
drag him under drowning waves

Though he escaped her artful scheming
he was lovestruck and not blind
for her charms were mesmerising
like other merfolk of her kind

Now she haunts his dreams forever
and in her turn she frets and moans
a shadow captured by his camera
her scattered pearls among the stones