The pseeping of pipits. The ticking
of robins. The flicking of redstarts.
Is the curtain-raiser.
Descend to the sand to walk up
dark naves. Arches and stacks
of schist and layered slate.
Stop to peer into the cracks and caves,
the patient work of tireless waves. Wait.
To hear the drip of fresh water.
Blue mussels in dense colonies.
Clenched goose barnacles in clusters.
Safety in numbers.
Near the shore
note the pools.
How they shelve.
Imagine the sun-tempered cool
on a day in July. The slide
in from the soft edge.
The sand sucks at the soles
of your shoes. Ascend,
the sound of the sea dissipating.
The pseeping of pipits. The ticking
of robins. The flicking of redstarts.
Is the send-off.
Glenn Hubbard has been writing since 2013 and lives at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama near Madrid. He has written a good deal of nature poetry over the years, inspired by the flora and fauna of both Spain and the UK. Some of this work has been published in journals such as Words for the Wild, the Dawntreader and Sarasvati.
Jessica
Peter Fullagar is an editor and writer living in Berkshire. His first book, Virginia Woolf in Richmond, was published in November 2018 to coincide with a Virginia Woolf Statue campaign and his short story, The Walking Stick, is included in an anthology called Tempest. He also writes ELT materials and has some exam books published. He tweets at 
Ion Corcos has been published in Grey Sparrow Journal, Clear Poetry, Communion, The High Window and other journals. 
Ann Christine Tabaka is better known by her middle name, Chris. She has been writing poems and rhymes since she was fourteen. She was an artist, a chemist, and a personal trainer. Her poems are in the Contemporary Group’s anthology “Dandelion in a Vase of Roses,” and the poetry journals “Whispers,” “The Society of Classical Poets,” “Indiana Voice Journal,” “Halcyon Days Magazine,” and “Scarlet Leaf Review.”
Foxglove Journal 