DEPARTED THIS STAGE OF EXISTENCE

moss & lichen
eat each
chiselled name

gnaw
away at
stone memories

even
the stone
is withered

some faces
having nothing
to say

or a half-eaten date
that's lost
its name

Time
chewed &
spat  out

there is the cut
of salt
in the air

tombstones
lie all
higgedly-piggedly

as if
the graveyard is
a drunken dance

ghosts frozen in the air
held
in the grasp of frost

trees blown into
fierce gestures
a dance of demons

etched against a sky
that crumbles
into nothingness

the sun
afraid
to show its face

the sea
flattens
itself into silver

only the silence
can be
heard

the tide
lays back
from the shore

cockle pickers
stop &
move again

like human
punctuation
marks