December Evening

December Evening

Dusk walk, out from the woods
over wide fields, a stile, a path
skirting the Iron Age fort,
coastline snaking away from us
both ways, we see wide sky
smeared with cloud and light –
rain stroking the land’s horizon
sun bursting in patches of gold
on a sea suddenly empty of ships
while in the bay, sea sits in heavy
battleship grey, unmoving -

Everything today has two sides –
we walk, you and I, with two dogs,
one black, one white, hurtling in circles
over the high green hill - they follow
you out onto the concrete jetty
where beach becomes water –
I stay on the shore and watch the rain
come in over your dark form –
in the distance, St Anthony’s Lighthouse
slowly blinks as darkness dissolves
today’s bright moments. The moon
almost at her quarter is blown away
by clouds, our footprints soon to be
washed away by rain.