Paupers

Paupers

We dwelt in small stone cottages

That face an inclined pebble beach

And the sea hisses so seductively

A view cherished by the stranger

In our midst.  A traveller.  From the city

We are suspicious of outsiders here

We saw him race across the beach

Tottering, spiralling towards paradise

He did not know about that rogue current

And we had not troubled ourselves

to tell him.  He was not one of us, you see

And now it seems that he never will be