From Newton Cross to Peter Black, water always wins:
light fades and tumbles from the fatal Ness
like Clare and Snitterly,
victim of the stalking storm
that haunts the coast like a serial killer:
patient and deadly, carrying an axe
The crazed, compulsive collector
pins churches to the seabed like drowned butterflies
or as traps for unwary Shipden boatmen
who barely remember Whimpwell Green
Distorting reality for the sake of neatness,
the prowling Foulness murderer returns again
to smooth the edges of the ancient map,
pitch ploughmen into ditches
With no law to defend them,
the naked householders of Happisburgh
shut their eyes
and bare their necks,
last layer of skin peeled away
by the prophetic sun