Walking to The Ocean

let’s take a walk to
the ocean shall we
it’s a mere matter 
of three miles away
though you won’t see the sea
or find an horizon
breath in ozone
taste the briny spray
hear beach breakers crash
the grating shingle’s
long withdrawing roar
no painted ship idles
on this unpainted ocean
no peg-leg pirate
plots a mutinous fate
no phantom parrot
prates pieces of eight
there’s no keelhauling
no walking the plank
no sinking ships
no deserting rats
no doomed Titanic
no icebergs no rocks and reefs
no mermaids no sirens
no whales no dolphins
no jaws with shark’s teeth
no flotsam and jetsam
no dross
no shot albatross
there’s no Victorian pier
no seaside attractions
with roller coasters
no pink-skinned children
with sunburnt shoulders
no candyfloss
no kiss-me-quick hats
no buckets and spades
no sandcastles
no bathing-belle contests
no bikinis
no Mr Whippys
no Punch and Judys
no shrimping nets
no deckchair tickets
no beach cricket
yet how we love
our tiny ocean
with no lighthouse
and no lifeboat station
no swell no tide
no perpetual motion
for we know full well
it’s just a lake by mistake
a millpond maybe
which laps against
The Stroudwater Canal
as benignly as the sheep
who safely graze near by
where Ocean Bridge
links landlubber’s towpath
to life of the main
and seagulls do swim
with swans and ducks
moorhens and coots
who scoot across
their watery domain
oblivious of flood and tsunami
so let’s take a walk
to The Ocean shall we
let’s dance a hornpipe
sing a shanty too
for as fine a feathered crew
as ever set sail
and winged back to harbour
to let us in on their tale

Jeff Cloves

afterthought

among my Stroudiie friends
half seem to know of The Ocean
others have never heard of it
‘The Ocean’ however appears on the OS map of 1882
and ‘Ocean Bridge’ still bears that nameplate 

I’ve swiped ideas from these poems:
Dover Beach
Sea Fever
Cargoes
The rime of the ancient mariner

from these novels;
Treasure Island
Brighton Rock
Moby Dick

from these films:
A night to remember
Mutiny on the Bounty
Robert Shaw spouting poems and songs in
Jaws
Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Swann in
Pirates of the Caribbean