Highly Commended, Live Canon Children's Poetry Competition 2021
You show me
sand dollars and sea beans
starfish, urchins, barnacles
crusted limpets in dusted jars
all sorts of turtle shells
map, snapper, diamondback
black sand and hag stones
mermaids’ purses, cockles and clams
shark teeth and gator heads
snake skins pinned to picture frames
because you don't know what to do with them
cockroach husks and crab legs
trinkets scooped from beaches.
You've swept sand from the sockets
of all kinds of skulls
laid seaweed in sunshine
until it shrivelled to brittle strips.
I admire how you've arranged them so neatly -
bottled feathers, lined up bones.
You show me in pixels
from so far away
the things which define you
offered with a smile
a sparkling eye, so alive
so alive among relics.
