Under the Rock

Under the rock you would find no doubt

Entire civilizations, a hidden doubloon

As the sea swished and slushed between

The cavities, where shellfish resolute

Stuck to their sessile life, and wellingtoned

Boy lost in the world of salty adventure

Waded and leapt the Longhoughton rocks

As gulls jeered and careered above, school

Out, Alice Cooper raging in ears, in cup of shell,

Under the rock you would find no doubt

Here salvation, a plop of the cheeky blenny

Whilst the eel coiled and slipped in crevices

Where the stick and prodding fingers of the boy

Could not reach, tiny crabs and other invertebrate

Would scamper to join the myriad of refugees

All cloaked in the mud and brown of flight

Gone was mathematics and the threat of chemistry

Only the scent and tickle of marine life, of the real

Under the rock you would find no doubt

Your revelations, the books of life and love writ

In the goings on of the unsual and the colouful

You would chase them, hunt them down, significance

Found in the wet throbbing being in your hands

The eyes and mouth like Christ on the cross

For some animals are like some kind of blasphemy

But for the boy, as he always tenderly replaced them

They were his friends, he felt this was his kingdom.