sea sounds

While I was in the south, I managed to get an hour or so to walk along the marine parade at Alicante, which is as good an excuse as any to post this old piece, written in response to a challenge to write a favourite joke as a poem:

Listen

Listen to the sea:
what tales does she tell?
what tall tales does she tell of foreign shores?

Listen to the sea:
what does she whisper?
what secrets does she whisper into shell ears?

Listen to the sea:
what yarns does she spin?
what strange yarns does she spin to the sand on the beach?

Listen to the sea:
does she lie, does she nag, does she joke?
does she gossip, flatter or charm?

I listen, but the sea
says nothing,
only waves.

 
 
One of the things I particularly like about the joke, is that it’s so easy to ‘translate’ into Spanish:

¿Qué dice el mar cuando llega a la playa?
“¡Hola!”