What’ll the tide bring in?
What’ll the tide bring in?

Driftwood sticks and seaweed fronds
Mangrove seeds and seashell rings

What’ll the tide bring in?
What’ll the tide bring in?

Letters in bottles and sea grass
Pipis and cockles and sea stars
Great white teeth and blue whale bones
A hermit crab and its takeaway home
Pennies and junk and plastic bags
Washed up nets and bottle caps

My mum says I can keep the pennies
But the trash should not be on our beach
Let’s clean up the junk and washed up nets
No more plastic sea

I make mandala in the sand
The waves roll higher
It’s pattern versus sea
The tide ebbs at my feet
And it takes

The driftwood sticks and seaweed fronds
Mangrove seeds and sea shell rings
Pipis and cockles and sea stars
Letters in bottles and sea grass
The hermit crab and its takeaway home
The great white teeth and whale bones
All the trash we take away and tell our friends
We have to change, no more plastic sea

What’ll the tide bring in?
What’ll the tide bring in?

Hopes and dreams and far off plans
Tomorrow’s days and yesterday’s maps
Reflections of the starry sky
The universe in the blink of an eye

What’ll the tide bring in?
What’ll the tide bring in?

© Claudia Robin Gunn