Lonely Vigil

It’s the end of a season! Summer is long gone but traces of it linger on in the beach cafes and pavilions of Scheveningen. These are a Dutch tradition and something that is looked forward to each year with eager anticipation. A last visit before their annual demise, ready for the winter, gave me the idea for this fanciful, rather wistful look at the seaside and its visitors… Now the pavilions are all demolished and the sands swept clean and we must look forward instead to brisk walks along the icy, windswept boulevard, followed by a glass of frothy, cream-topped hot chocolate in one of its cosy, candlelit restaurants, with a fine view of the cold, grey North Sea.

Lonely Vigil

Lonely flower
Beside the sea
In your dimpled jar
I see.

Tell your tale
Of stormy seas,
Balmy days,
Oh, tell me, please.

Tourists come
And tourists go
From your table
To and fro.

Kites a-flying
On the sand,
Hold them tight,
Gripped in your hand.

Sailboats tossing
In the foam,
Bobbing, dipping,
Heading home.

Lonely flower,
Blown in the gale,
Tall and sturdy,
Not so frail.

Tell us
What you daily see.
Paint a picture
Just for me.