Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Tony Lopez

1 mudstone crumbs shell fragments finest sand tidal grind every day every night a medium of crawling life compressed baked lifted blown away salt marsh shallow soil shingle marram grass fescue grass tidal path creek of pollen falls in whispers in the clay in the loam in the top of  the soil in the sand in the molt of  the sea in the light sand the light sound of shift in the swash zone waves burrow for release in the bend of  the body I balance my current only takes me back when seawards seawards is the call of my curve & no turning 2 Two large cormorants flew rapidly and very low across the water heading directly towards Langstone Rock, where Dawlish Warren joins the coast just beyond the western edge of the Exe estuary. Their wing tips were almost touching the choppy water. This must have been about 7:45 on Friday morning; I was thirty yards or so out in the sea, only my head visible between the waves that the cormorants flew in among as they powered along one behind the other. I had come down the concrete lifeboat ramp and taken just a few steps on wet sand scattered with various shells, little gleaming stones, and scraps of seaweed, getting quickly into the cool water. The sky was piled up with dark gray cloud overhead but clear and bright at the horizon. The two birds passed close by and continued on their way indifferent to me watching them from the water and they gave no indication if they saw anything unusual. she swam only at night on the spring tides in the silk light of water slipping her over the mud flats when they studied why she did it drifted far beyond her limits though it made her vulnerable to prey several theories came but none swam at night in a spring tide in the silk light unsure of itself becoming only what is left after breaking 3 herring gull black-headed gull arctic tern oystercatcher turnstone sanderling carrion crow jackdaw white wagtail rock pipit peregrine kestrel buzzard brent goose cormorant kingfisher farther out gannet stomach of fur coughed up at low tide stranded snowfall of fur dusting the mouth sanded out of this worms fall soft as whispers coiling into faun- ing “Aphrodita” & out of her hair come the corpses of a swallowed sea 4 mussel shell oyster shell clam shell cockle shell whelk shell limpet shell winkle shell razor shell crab shell lobster shell prawn shell sea lettuce she windblown sand seashell sand shifting sand she sea sandwort sea rocket sea holly she half sand she both sea she half sea she both sand she is a both-formed thing she wool sand cotton sand wood sand she sea leather sea crystal sea skin she half wool she both skin she half skin she both wool she is a woollen skin she asphalt soil nylon soil sandy soil she landscape escape seascape she half soil she both scape she half scape she both soil she escapes 5 And swimming my slow breast stroke out to the channel I saw a darkwinged butterfly come flying in above the waves, moving with the breeze, heading for the dunes. Was this a migrant painted lady, third generation, from Africa? drifter           on the surface upside           down dead water floater             upper                  sheltered on the littoral fringe lower                  very sheltered swimmer upward                 of hundreds    of thousands of hundreds    of thousands of hundreds   of thousands   of hundreds   of thousands   of hundreds of thousands   of hundreds   of thousands   of hundreds   of thousands        of hundreds        of thousands       of hundreds             of thousands of hundreds of thousands of hundreds             of thousands        of hundreds        of thousands       of hundreds             of thousands        of hundreds        of houses             of hundreds             of houses of          of hundreds        of houses             of hundreds             of houses of          of sands               of houses             of sand                      of houses of          of sand                 of hums               of sand                      of hums                 of sand                 of hum                 of sand                      of humming