Our anti-climax
covid Christmas
is over 

I’m limp and listless
draped on the sofa
gorging on telly
with my hungry,
stinging eyes

as our Norwegian blue spruce wilts
in the radiator heat
so do I:

I’m a year end zombie
and I can’t even be bothered 
to stagger about for brains.

I sit on the edge of the chair.
I stare
and quietly weep.

**

I took a walk on Shellness beach
to put things in perspective

the Sheppey beach beyond the marsh,
near where Leysdown laid down to die
at the end of the potholed road
this is no-where, 
a beach at the back of beyond

the wind is fresh and bracing; 
pull-yourself-together face-slapping

I enjoy the crisp calcium crunch 
of razor clams and cockleshells, 
beneath my feet

these noisy remnants of 
a billion tiny deaths

remind me of my presence.