Dean Sobers
Everyone that everyone knows is here
under bland, ungiving depths of cloud.
A remembered beach of a sunken town.
The rush to the shingle and the sand.
The seine boat creeps away from land.
The spotter semaphores with his hat.
The crew follow and pay out the net.
Everyone everyone knows is out.
Ella bouncing us all to work.
Bloody minded about our future,
with her sister, like their father.
You pull with everyone on the ropes.
You gurn at the kids who laugh and kick
up sand as the writhing nets are drawn
in staggered surges to the shore.
Everyone everyone knows is out.
Elizabeth, last in the ruins.
An atom adrift in vastness.
A wire humming emptily in the wind.
Black and white photos of Hallsands.