Beachcomber

(after George Mackay Brown)

Monday I found a high-heeled shoe.

Weed slime and tan leather.

I gave it back to the sea, to stumble in.

Tuesday a head of hair.

Next summer

it will devastate the coastline.

Wednesday a half-bottle of Absolut vodka.

I washed my eyes.

The sky was shiny with sea-birds and angels.

Thursday I got nothing,

a fish-head,

damp socks and wind-lashed skin.

Friday I shook a mermaid’s purse,

tipped rotten sea-stink from it

the way smell can be tipped from empty spaces.

Saturday my lover’s cock.

Arching friendly and warm

amongst the sea-anenomes.

Sunday, for fear of someone else’s god

I hoard amber, lapis, moonstone.

What’s heaven? A sea-chest with a thousand bold stones.