What’s your favourite thing to be?
When you go scrambling to the sea.
The gulls like fishwives screaming thoughts.
of how to steal the chips you bought.
Where nests of families snuggle close,
wrapped towels protecting legs.
Like pointillistic towelling squares,
pinned down with stony pegs.
We watch the seagulls soar and swoop,
and bark their battle cry.
Their greed and grace each bending loop,
like market streets gone by.
A scrapbook of the seaside
Robert Louis Stevenson
Ocean Speaks: Marie Tharp and the Map That Moved the Earth – by Jess Keating, illustrated by Katie Hickey, Tundra books, 2020
Beach life 