Listen to The Fall of the West Pier now – just press on the link below.

Rumbling crushing crumbling

oblivious to reason it moves over pebbles

seeking its prey.

A huge head hovers, steely eye glints

as massive neck swings high in the air

peers over pickings.

Pillars and poles, wrought iron railings

a mountain of memories

in heaps on the beach.

Rumbling crashing crumbling

remnants of the ballroom

like a doomed Titanic fall.

Two giant orange crab like cranes

crawl from foreshore to the sea

shifting and sifting

through the shingle.

Their greedy mouths picking

over the debris

where ribbons of mussels cling.

Flimsy metal window frames

float like disembodied birds

beaten into submission

tossed into lorries for landfill.

A huge tower of steel and glass

will be its tombstone.

Long queues will make their way

for a chance to glance

at an uncertain landscape

“Doesn’t it look tidy now?”

says a passer-by.

Poem on youtube with film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNfohzeD7LU