People’s Bay
A series of poems inspired by small harbours and bays. Chosen for events happening. There is the tsunami, the monster coming ashore, the wartime spies landing, the warplane raised from the water, the risk of drowning and much more. Stories told in the form of poems.
Tsunami
People were swimming and diving having fun in the shallows
The tidal wave came in at supersonic speed and hit
Rising up like a behemoth to pound and steal the people
They never had a chance to swim away or reach the shore
The Thai island took a hit and everything changed
Such a pretty quiet bay to chill out and think nothing
Enjoy the lap of the waves and watch the strong high noon sun
There are shoals of multi coloured fish in the shallows
And low flying gulls that intelligently fish on the wing
You can snorkel and spy the delicate rainbow coral
The locals will serve you a fruit kebab and a cold beer
You must take some photos to remember this place
A little island with an even smaller secluded bay
Time has no meaning here except when the wave came
Tens of thousands died or were hurt or simply missing
A dozen nationalities died that day many here
The island was ruined hit by the wave no mercy
Humans were just more flotsam and jetsam pounded
Oblivion hit that day sea life also suffered grieved
Beached dolphins and sharks and scoured coral
Snapped matchstick palm trees and stranded boats
Uninjured tourists turned rescuers saving a score
Those who survived were lucky the day wave came
The wave devastated countless nations and lands
A quarter of a million died that day in 2004
Many at a small bay on a small Thai island
Where there was a before and after
Spies Landing
The little harbour by the town was a cloak and dagger place
Varied spies were landed here by opposing sides
Each wanted to be the master of the town and island
Sark was smaller than the bigger islands but was as important
A British sub came into the harbour and surfaced
It dropped off a lady spy to seduce Nazi officers
To get their secrets on troop numbers and orders
What the garrison’s aims were and sow dis-information
At the end if she survived she was to kill the commander
An Allied war victory ending the war 6 months early
Were the Nazi’s aware of this plan before it happened?
Would they capture either the sub or the girl or just observe
Then pounce and torture her for the Allied war secrets
It was different when German U-boats surfaced here
They always went closer to the shore and were quicker
Dropping off their agents and diving in less than a minute
The Nazi spies would infiltrate the Resistance movement
Finding the key members and liquidating them and their line
Often they placed a stool pigeon to inform and pass on lies
This was the way it went in the Channel Islands in the war
Guernsey and Jersey overshadowed the smaller island
Its little sheltered bay was perfect for spy drops
Decades later few know the secret of cat and mouse
And the cloak and dagger war that went on here
Monster’s Come Ashore
It swayed from side to side and roared like a Devil
A monster came ashore from the deeper water
The inhabitants of the American port ran away
Trying to get away to live another day
In-between roars the monster laughed like a hyena
It was sky blue in colour and thirty feet long
Half slithering and half walking on three legs
A bizarre animal risen up from the deep
From where no sunlight shines or human goes
Yet it fancied human flesh so ventured forth
A very hungry gruesome form of snapdragon
Older than the dinosaurs and twice as mean
T-Rex had nothing on this monster in looks
Or speed for this thing killed and ate on the fly
Snatching random people and liquefying them
His mouth was his belly and his eating tool
Sailors and fishermen were caught and eaten
A cop tried to shoot the creature but failed
His bullets bounced off and he was taken alive
All those under its grasp were hideously killed
The harbour town was soon a ghost town
The surreal monster from the water owned the bay
The new master of the world was here to stay
It wouldn’t stop till all were dead and consumed
Hidden Loot
The Philippine bay was home to a family of fishermen
One was diving down to retrieve his lead weights
He dropped them when fixing his nets and had to get them
He found more than lead while down there
There was a box of gold bars winking at him
Sat there on the seabed in an open ammo box
Had Yamashita and the OSS left it here?
Dozens of metres down on the bottom
A real treasure beyond dispute over there
Just like Simoun’s discarded jewel case
Which is worth the most the gold or his jewels?
Both are one offs and beyond cash value
Best leave the gold here for bad men want it
And a quite a few jealous women too
Gold corrupts ruins lives kills maims and war
Nothing good would come of it except what if
This gold could correctly fix the broken economy
Paved roads streetlights flushable toilets fresh water
Plus a dozen other things to improve our lives
Not the shootings robberies murders stabbings
If this gold was brought to the surface to the world
The fisherman is smart and retrieves his weights
He leaves the gold to the next fool with stupid dreams
Raise Warbird
The old woman was on her death bed
Her home was a small cottage up on the rocks
The view overlooked a small bay east of Tokyo
She told a story for the first time after 85 years
In the water is an aeroplane at the deepest part
It contains my sweetheart he flew over in the war
They were up chasing the Americanos their B-sans
He was hit and flew over to see me but crashed there
Raise the plane and bring my love up from his watery grave
He said he would see me before my end in this world
My end is close now so please honour my last wish
We were together the night before they flew off
I know it was him the plane carried my name
I saw it and him before he landed on the water
They launched boats to save him but couldn’t
His plane floated but he was gone elsewhere
He simply wasn’t there in the cockpit or water
I saw all this from the shoreline it’s not far
You can swim there in minutes where he is
Please bring up his plane and my love
I know he’ll be still there inside his plane
A week later we lifted up the plane
It was in thirty metres of water in the bay
It was the deepest part before the ocean
The boat crane brought it to the harbour jetty
It was carefully placed on wooden pallets
Fresh water hoses hosed it down of salt and silt
It was a green Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate
Nothing was missing from the old plane
With a bit of work it would fly again
But it was a sacred war grave of a pilot
The old woman slowly walked to the plane
Her name was still visible clear as day!
She was helped onto the barnacle full wing
We slowly slid the canopy back on its rails
There in the pilot’s seat was the pilot!
His sweetheart smiled and nodded
She reached out and patted his skull
‘I knew you were here waiting for me’
Her lover smiled ‘Finally we are as one’
They clasped hands almost a prayer
The 96 year old lady gently fell forward dead
Their huge circle was now complete
Our job was done they were now together
The Hayate would go to the museum
And we would find more old planes
Swept Away
The little children swam in the shallow water of the bay
For several days now and were part of the scenery
Then a wave came and bounded off the rocks
Out to see the kids were swept into the Baltic
For their parents their world came to an end
The family holiday went from being tranquil
It was now serious wrong nightmare Oh Fuck!!!
Our kids are dead we let them swim in the water
The sloping sand was so inviting to the water
That warm lovely clear salt water under the sun
Sparkles of sun danced on the surface alive
Not dead like our two kids Emily and Johann
Age 3 and 5 now dead in Heaven with God!
Why oh why oh why on and on and on
As parents we deserve to die don’t we?
We took our eyes off the children for minutes
As we did the other days and they were fine
Till a wave took them away forever more
Their little lifeless bodies on the sand
Oh Hellfire what have we done…
Mermaid’s Shenanigans
Look there’s a real mermaid right there before us!
See how she swims oh she’s waving to us
This was no trick of the evening light
This Peruvian town had seen nothing like this
Was she here to stop the war?
I got my phone and filmed the mermaid
She was swimming and cavorting in the shallows
I notice how pretty she is with long black hair
Her skin looks almost green in the light
And her mystical eyes shine from within
She waves and beckons me to join her
What do I do?
Other people look at me and say no don’t go
I hand a guy my jacket and phone and shoes
I keep my shorts and t-shirt on and go to her
I walk into the water and it’s warm
She smiles and holds out a hand
I shake it and say my name is Lopez
She’s Tiana and a mermaid
I nod in agreement and we swim
She takes my hand and leads me along the shore
Many people point and speak and film us
You could say we are famous just now
We stop and embrace one another
Her kiss is like the early morning sun
The wind blows her hair like a cloud
Oh how I love this unreal creature!
We swim some more and loop and dive
More kisses and we make love off shore
How we did this is our secret even if filmed
I found my partner I’d been searching for
This small secluded bay brought her to me
I joined her in the deeper water
No longer alone or hated
Liselle Swims
Greek goddess Liselle swam in the little harbour
Time out from hiking the Cretan mountains
And researching the war history and Knossos
Those topics were so relevant yet so yesterday
She needed to reconnect with her inner being
This was the way to do it all by solo herself
She didn’t need a companion to guide her
History had no place on this swim
When the wave came she was lifted
A feather up above as below left right
No direction just movement all ways
Even still still still midnight dream cliché
Ended her thoughtfulness within her head
The law of physics objects in motion came
For a time Liselle was almost supersonic
That big wave moved so fast it was dizzying
She could breathe due to the air pocked
Ground effect science what gulls used
The wave rose up and rapidly slowed
She felt the deceleration passed out
Never asleep for this was real again
Another huge wave Thera style
When Knossos and the Minoans were hit
Who would get it this time?
Liselle rode the wrecking wave
Farms town cities Crete was swamped
A cost was asked a debt paid
Observed by a girl
Stolen Water
We were sailing in lazy circles in our boat
The water shook from the seabed and bang!
It happened the big push of the quake
Water eddied and swirled and our boat spun about
Rocks suddenly appeared out of the water
The water raced backwards and we were on land!
This was all so very scary I didn’t want to die just now
I wanted us to sail all the way to Greece next week
We were now on dry land that was really the seabed
The water was quite distant and islands were now hills
This was crazy and I was having none of it
I told my friend leave the boat we’ve got to go
What was the real beach and shore was safety
There were two floor bars and houses there
We ran two hundred yards to the beach
It was surreal we passed coral and seaweed
And even an old shipwreck from the war
This was stupid how could this happen?
We almost fell over when a new quake came
The land rocked and rolled and we saw it move
A sick side to side up and down shake
We were staggering now while it quaked
Then it stopped and we ran again up the beach
It was fifty yards to the Oyster Bar
We entered said Hi grabbed a free Efes beer
And went to the top floor to safety from any wave
There we saw the sea slowly enter the bay
But it stopped way beyond our boat
We didn’t know why till my pal pointed
The entire ocean floor had risen up!
The old beach was now a small hill
It raised the seabed the water was gone!
Damn I wanted a new beer and kebab
Then we better retrieve our boat
Sub Sea Ship
The spaceship was hidden in the bay under the sloping cliffs
A girl called Elma found it while walking up atop the cliff
There was no path up there just wild grass and small trees
It was obvious nobody had ever been there it was untouched
This made it hard going for the solo hiker on her gap year
She sat on a rock and drank some cold coffee for a rest
It was while gazing down at the water she saw something
This wasn’t a low seagull or sun reflection or a small boat
There was a thing under the water shining but not a reflection
It was under the water maybe on the bottom or floating there
It must be a submarine researching the geology or old wreck
Here the cliff was a hundred metres tall with no way down
The girl was smart and studied her homemade map
And noted a series of small ledges half a mile back
She headed here and went down to the water level
A little beach allowed some access along before it ended
Then she left her pack and got changed into a diving gear
She had a wetsuit flippers mask and air tank and camera
Then swam round the headland to the area she overlooked
Using her snorkel to save oxygen till she dove down
The girl took a GPS reading on her watch and went under
The water was deep clear and full of coloured fish
Far below her was an object that could be a submarine
It had no lights or propeller and didn’t move
It was just above the sandy bottom acting like a rock
Carefully she filmed it while swimming round it
A dozen metres across oblong shaped with no windows
It was an advanced sub or alien flying machine at rest
The lady diver surveyed it and studied it for research
Just then a door opened up and pink light glowed
Inquisitively she swam over and entered the craft
The door closed and the craft rose to the surface
Water flowed off it as it silently climbed to the sky
Taking the Russian diver girl to Goddess knew where
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