off season

one more drag on the tab
as it flickers and fades
into the cool sea mist
never to taste his breathe again
the sea stumbles and falls
onto the cold wet tarmac
free at last from the strains
of summer to make hay
with displays imitating life
drunken pub signs
frozen neon lights
are all that remain
of the holiday makers,
caravan movers,
summer shakers,
gone for another year
leaving behind dreams
of love lost,
love found,
love unrequited
in echoes of shells
that creep slowly over grains
of sand that cling to each other
as seaweed crawls over them
hoping to reach fading neon lights
that glint off a beach
that can breathe again
now it is free of the pounding feet,
slamming bodies,
digging of castles,
he watches through eyes
washed by the mist of the sea
signs sing in the breeze
to a promenade where nobody walks
except for a sea
come to reclaim
what has been and gone
as darkness filters in
to sharpen the edges of a
town that slumbers
he lights another cigarette and
tastes sea salt on his lips
as gulls sing one last song