I'M STARING at a postcard from 1902
Showing the North Beach on a hot summer's day
Women in stifling Victorian dresses
Walk or sit on the shore as a small boat
Drifts in the placid early 20th century Channel.
Passengers are waiting for the ferry
On that sunny day now deep in the past
A reminder that time passes so fast
And that every day should be cherished.
The cliffs have been somewhat eroded
And this morning the tide is full
With just a solitary soul on the Esplanade
Summer crowds of long ago just ghosts
As a winter wave leaps lethargically
Half-way up a very different wall
Very few clouds in the blue sky at all.
Over a century ago Sisley came here to paint
In a simpler world where a day on the beach
Brought such pleasure to so many.
But it's glorious here on this winter's day
I'm at peace with myself admiring the view
Of the azure sea from the pier
Just like people so many years before
Whom I observe wandering on the shore.
Guy Fletcher
Pantmawr
Cardiff
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