Beach Sonnet

Beach Sonnet

My first romantic sea-shore, with friends
was South Shields, north of Durham;
a beachy town that's all made up
of frisbee, chips and Reuben in the freezing sea.
The fresh air nearly made me choke
and two of us smoked cigarettes ankle-deep in tide;
A pretty girl who served us tea
saved the caf we sat in later
and among a million evening in that place
our one seemed so big, stretched out
of all proportion - a perfect place
that no one else could know but us.
Nelma's Golden Fleece, a tired Fiesta
drove us home and on the way we all played funk.