What is it I dream of post covid?
I don’t really want an awful lot,
Sit in the shelter, look out to sea,
Fish and chip paper rest on my knee,
Watch children search above the surf line,
They’ll hunt all day long for beach jewellery,
More than a year since I saw the sea,
The gannetts, the gulls, and the plovers,
I want an Italian ice cream,
Pistachio, in a cone, no flake,
To look on as kids display their hoard,
Sand rubies and sea glass emeralds,
It’s not too much to ask for is it?
I’ve complied, I need a small reward.

Harry Rogers, in the Red Bedroom, 5th February 2021.