August 14th

Tel Aviv glistened on August 14th

The Municipality Building glowed black, 

Red, white and green, of the 

UAE flag, its freshly minted ally

Israel, promised to cease its advance upon the West Bank, for now

Elsewhere, near Milton Combe,

Saltwater from the grey Cornish sea 

Knocked in vain at the stone steps of the

Lopwell Dam.

And held its secrets close to its bosom

Wrapped in reeds and tied up with a bogweed bow.

Five Gargeney ducks, on vacation from Ghana, contravening quarantine

Looked on agog, from the far bank, as 

Five humans squawking in the marsh

Added their bit to the effluent of Greylag geese.

A grey seal, lost, looked on from the salt marsh side

Then back out to the Atlantic, and beyond

The American prairie, to the

Pacific coast’s coniferous belt, where,

A banana slug radula rasps up detritus