To all of the nameless pierrot's
Who were hurt
But didn't let it show
Even when bleeding and bent
Making people smile wherever they went
They mask their pain
Trying in vain
To save themselves from that murderous fall
Made to end them once and for all
But someone cried
Ran to their side
As the teardrops began to fall
Off slid the pierrots' masks
Down came their walls
The pierrot's are dead
But they died without pain
Because someone cared
Someone cried
Someone **loved

The day I met a puffin we were standing in his path
Excitedly we clicked and snapped, keen to photograph
Sand eels dangling from his bill, he stood his tiny ground
Then off he flew, back out to sea and circled round and round
He came back twice to see us, so we thought what a thrill
To see this little sea clown close, with sand eels in his bill
Move out the way a local called, he needs to feed the chick
We stepped aside, he dashed straight past, into his burrow quick.
Before I met a puffin, I thought of them as tall
But in your pocket they could fit, they really are that small.
Sad eyed, painted Pierrots, a marvel to the eye
Swimming in the waters or whirling in the sky
All around a flash of orange, yellow, black, white, grey
Sorry little Sea clown for standing in your way.

15.10.18 JG

suffused with
spectral footfall
the promenade
fades into grey
winter stone.

With crumbling
smiles, pierrots
sally in monochrome
frames and the
dead bones of
donkeys rise to
cloddy beaches.

Through salt
burned eyes,
torpid seas
heave like heavy
blankets over rusting
lungs; the pulse
of slow decay.