NCLA New Writing: 'A moment in time' by Ellen Walker

NCLA New Writing:

‘A moment in time’ by Ellen Walker

after Ralph Angel

 

The beachfront sings, it roars abruptly, then falls back into a lull.

An elderly man sits on the same bench, a distinctly empty space hovers beside him.

Sunlight grows. Sunlight hovers. Sunlight strokes your skin.

We have done this all before it says.

You sit on your favourite crack in the pavement beside

everything you’ve given up on.

But you were younger.

Your mother called you ignorant, the teachers

told you to grow up.

The chimes of the fair grow stronger now.

Whistling good morning back to the wind.

You still sit on your favourite crack in the pavement, but I can’t see you.

A boy hurries excitedly to the ocean’s frothing tongue.

The heartbroken teen sparks up his lighter. And then his mother sighs.

She turns to take the strength from the ocean.

She inhales the fumes from his cigarette: an attempt to suck out his pain.

You’ve grown up now, you say,

but you will never grow old.

 

 

Ellen Walker is a first year studying English Literature with Creative Writing, she is currently working to develop her poetry writing skills. She hopes to write for a magazine in the future and eventually have a novel published.