Stormy seas

The storms off the East Yorkshire coast gained momentum.
Sea walls shuddered as the waves crashed,
sending huge swathes of spray across
the town of Bridlington.

They held their own; the sea walls.
Courageously protected the people.
The homes. The businesses.
The life lines.

Those close by tasted salt in the air.
Felt the shudder of the walls.
And as they watched the devastation unfold,
they sensed the danger ahead.

Batten down the hatches.
Lock up and go home.
Pick up the windbreakers; the deckchairs.
No sane person would be out today.

They won the battle; the sea walls.
But they couldn’t protect the tiny creatures that
live in our seas. As a beautiful sunrise lit the morning sky,
we counted the dead. The millions on our shores.
Some still fighting for life.

The crabs. The birds. The starfish. The lobsters.
Baby seals. Porpoise. Octopus, all washed up
amongst the debris and seaweed. None were
a match for the might of the north seas.

We put a crab back into the sea.
Knowing it would not survive, life almost extinct.
Hope long gone.
The fight for this little one had taken everything it had.
It’s weariness evident. It’s claws useless.

The clear up took weeks. The smell of decaying,
putrid flesh evident. Just a few days in February
2021; that’s all it took, to cause the death of so
many creatures. To wreak havoc and untold
suffering to our beautiful sea life.

Nature can be so charming.
So delightful. So captivating.
In contrast, so harmful.
So powerful. So destructive.