Poetry possibly inspired by a number of childhood memories being cobbled together.

With thanks to Dina Nasyrova for use of the header image—licensing—which is not of Merthyr Mawr.

On the Merthyr beach I run
On the sand at Merthyr Mawr
The kite I happily let go
Fast going out to sea
Going, gone and more
Why they call
Why they shout
Had I set it free
Didn’t I know about value?
Things like cost and money?
Yes
Perhaps more so than they
Beauty being in
A beholder’s eye
See earlier today
I pretty much had
A lit cigarette in one of mine
A ridiculous member
Of the mother class
Smoking on the rented minibus
In which we all traversed
To the Welsh coast
She’d flicked the still-lit butt
Out an open window at the front
Only for the wind
To bring it back on in
The one next to me
Where it hit upon my face
To set members of said class
Into righteous rage
Using words like disgrace
And one grovelling apology
Sorry-sorry-sorry
While making I as a king
Centre of attention
Receiver of much sympathy
Wounded
Hurt
Burned
Well . . . not quite
But that wasn’t the point
I could’ve been
So should’ve been
Everybody’s little darling prince
For the rest of the day
Until Mathew
Snotty nosed Mathew
Who liked to climb trees
Then look down and say
Girls with my name
Shouldn’t try likewise
Ran off into the sandy dunes
The second we arrived
Hadn’t even had a chance
To all get off the bus
Before he was gone
Like greased lighting
Into the long tall grass  
Search parties arranged
The rest of us kids
Guarded by just one
Who we might have overrun
Such was the impatience
Having travelled all the way
From London
But for his being
One of the few fathers to come
A great big one
Herded us back on the bus
Then stood guard at the door
So not to be encircled if we’d tried
So leaving us no choice
But be still and agitated
Looking through windows
With seething eyes
In the direction of the beach
The place we wanted to go
Until they all came trudging back
Mathew carried in arms
As though rescued from a crucifixion
He having been found
Facedown in a puddle
Where he’d very nearly drowned
Which led to much lamenting
Especially by me
When realising it meant
He was new flavour of the day
I wasn’t having that
No way
So on the Merthyr beach I run
On the sand at Merthyr Mawr
The kite let go so far out to sea
It’s lost forever more
While from high upon
The dunes behind
All questions aim at me

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