IMAGES (DEBUSSY IN EASTBOURNE)

Here the element behaves.
Its trophies honour him; the noise
(sea-trumpets, bells beneath the waves)
is distant but clear. Sailor boys
are busy at the water’s edge
with sandcastles or something, and
idly the tide comes in to fetch
them back. Women walk hand in hand
behind him. It is rather warm.
A shell has opened at his foot.

Islands there are, and sirens, storms…
Here Neptune wears a three-piece suit.

Previously published in the British Medical Journal (1977)