sand dunes

 sand dunes

bracken heady 

as we step steadily

along the rabbit paths

the wind pernickety 

in the russet cornices

of this marram-grass sea

blue-beard cut-throats

grasp no cutlas

mind how you go

a parentheses of striped snails

punctuates our attentive gaze 

for the flash of a lizard

on this wind-swept maze

who piled this sand here 

on gower’s tip with

the weariness of slither 

on sundown’s burning ship

up dune  down dune

tired legs in layers on

this mirage of sahara 

with its top-most gainsayers 

next one next one but one 

runs the dune’s egg timer

but at last we are there

and each in our own way

mouths Crème de la Mer