Walk With Me: Poetry, & Fearing Men on Lonely Beaches

in #poetry6 years ago (edited)

Amiable seaweeds sluice against wet legs
Drape crisp like dried flesh against fence wires -
rusting steel hopes to restrain those careless types.

The ones that would disregard the reason why the fence stands between them and the fragile dunes and declare:

but it is hot, and I needed shade!

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Tiny purple molluscs stowaway on the overturned rafts of cuttlefish
The tide will rescue them from all this.

A kangaroo once catapulted from scrub to cold sea, chased by dogs - the joey drowned, caught in wet fur.

Three container boats hulk their way towards Port Phillip Bay as a cormorant flies in the opposite direction, towards the remaining Apostles

She can see the rust on their vast sides from shore, thinks of shipwrecks and hundreds of packing cases washed up
Men coming in to claim scrap
Lug it up the cliff steps, heaving and panting as if to prove something or make dollar or two.

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There is a man that follows her along the beach, cock dangling flaccid.
Furious, she lifts her phone to take a photograph.

Do lonely man ever find lonely women on lonely beaches?

The camera trick works - he waves, retreats and disappears into scrub
She has tried it before, last week, when a man sat on the stairs smoking cigarette after cigarette.
She wondered about DNA traces on tobacco stained fibre.
He saw her take photographs, asked if she likes plants.

The oddness of the question had made her queasy at once.

She walked by with fake steeliness
Heart thrums against bones
Imagines being the kangaroo rushing waterside to sacrifice something living.

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Not everything threatens.

Tiny mauve flowers & salty leaves tremble in the hot sun
Skinny lipped grasses look more at home here -
Both give way to footprints - they cannot take photographs as warnings to back off.
They burrow into sand footings at the mercy of sunburned limbs
Board covers and towels cover succulent leaf.
Do such intruders imagine they are picnicking in a more welcoming garden?

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Bees swarm even here. Sweetness in saltbush.

In her mind she kicks and punches and screams.

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phew this is so potent. so much contained within... it has feeling and emotion and i am right there with you on your journey.. especially the part about sacrificing something living.... i'm sorry you had that encounter, i am sorry so many men take that chance that a lonely woman found on a lonely beach might be interested in them. kicking and punching and screaming for all of us... your writing, what came out of it, is beautiful and I'm glad you're safe.

Yes J. was really worried but impressed 're the camera trick. I think this needs a lot of editing to get it now I wanted to express it perfectly but I had to post while it was still raw. I felt so angry yet fearful at the same time. How dare they make me unsafe on MY beach!!!

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how dare they!!! I know you'll reclaim that space (probably already have)! but how infuriating. Your poem is really stellar as is-- really well done.

Thankyou so much. I really respect your judgement so that means alot.

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oh my lovely, the power in your words and the fear I felt for you out there and also the anger at the situation you were put in. Thank you for sharing this, silence is not our friend at times like this, I am so glad you thought to use your camera and send you much love and light. Be gentle and kind to yourself, thinking of you xxxx

Im fine!!! Ir was unnerving and unsettling and infuriating but the poetry makes it seem more intense I think as I worked the emotion into a distillation. Xxx Thanks for your kind words x Bloody men.. they MUST know they are intimidating, surely???

The camera idea is a good one... Im not sure why I thought of it but its now in my repoirtore of self defence skills... you then have to pretend to text as if their photo is already out there as they could just take the phone and run!!

The deep down fear women feel in lonely beautiful places is real and sadly takes one's freedom to explore, away.
Some lovely word pictures.

Thank you so much for your lovely comment as I really appreciate this. It is sad that we don't always feel safe. I live in a fairly safe area but it is getting more and more busy so I can't always trust it in the way that I used to

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oh, I can feel so much in this - I am so sorry you had that experience. You expressed what this feels like so honestly and beautifully, I have goosebumps all over.

If this writing made you feel then my poetic Reflections worked haha. I don't often try my hand at poetry but that walk was really a lot about impressions and singular words and phrases that came to me so it was best put together in this way. I really appreciate you reading and commenting on it it means a lot thank you. I am totally fine and perhaps all of it was in my imagination and there was no ill-intent from the men in question. However sometimes I don't think they realise how intimidating they can be.

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I do think that the majority of men do not have ill intent, but it is reasonable for women to be cautious, because of the small percentage of men who are truly ill-intentioned.

And as such, I really don't think most men realize that they can be quite intimidating, and are in fact often clueless to the fact, though again, a small percentage specialize in intimidating.

Exactly full stop in some ways I feel bad for instantly thinking that I should be scared as they were probably harmless but the reputation of terrible men is enough to make women quite cautious in situations like that stop

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Just 🤗🙏🏽💕

Powerful words, and I doubt there are many women with whom they would not resonate.

I am fortunate that the men who approached me on my beaches were mostly harmless, and there were almost always other people around, not to mention that I was often accompanied by my dog, and therefore far safer than if alone.

I was saddened by the loss of the joey, as I am frequently saddened by needless loss of life here, as when a deer was hit in front of my neighbor's house a couple of days go, and as when my rabbit was killed by my own dog several months earlier. Damn.

But you rock, girlfriend, taking things your own way, making it clear that you're not about to take any crap, and just being you. Kudos, my friend.

As for the poem, it's real in its rawness, and I'm with @mountainjewel in thinking you have no need to edit. It's a powerful read.

Thank you lovely. I didn't get any comments on this home as I think people are reluctant to engage with poetry sometimes. So it is really nice that you stopped and read it. It would be handy to have a dog for that reason but I do think I wouldn't give in without raising hell first.

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Which is what counts the most. ;-)

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