TRAWLING FOR MEMORIES

for Pete & Elaine


A blue boat speeds into the harbour

and we too have been trawling

all evening, but in the car,

spreading our nets to catch

any quick-slipping memories.



In streets, houses and rooms

so familiar yet so changed

we are seeking out creatures

of long ago, our former selves

seeming a different species.




Lights of the windows, aquariums

where students bend over computers,

while we strain for elusive shapes,

dark movements on walls and ceilings

and snatches of voices and songs.




On the brink of a stone jetty

we feed the outgoing tide

with ashes of the last generation :

powdery dust of two lives

and below, the shoals unseen.