Warden Point

Cumbersome year
come to rest upon
this quiet beach
at world’s end reach
here we meet

under soft grey skies
pebbles crackle underfoot
tender glands constrict
my throat

the tide is away
reveals expanse of rippled clay
which, each day
washes new fossils
into our consciousness
shark’s teeth, lobster tails
fishes’ vertebrae

people come
to collect these lessons
from Father time

iron whelk in my palm
who slithered in silt
when mammals were 
merely mice
weaving unnoticed between
dinosaur toes

here at our Anthropocene end
we search for signs of our beginnings
in collapsing cliffs of London clay

it’s clear that Life will find a way
it ebbs and flows like the tide
creatures have always, always died

to think we might be exempt!
to believe we matter more
than winkles.