Lonesome Traveller

Originally published in New Writing from the North, circa 1999

		     A friend collapsed onto the beach exhausted 
		    and instantly fell asleep, lying in a Jesus Christ pose. 
	 I drew a cross around him in the sand and inscribed the words 
					      TILL THE
						   TIDE
						COMES 
						     IN.

		and there he lay     lonesome traveller
		Christ-like     dead     his baggage beside
		firewood     food     a book of futures
		till the tide comes in
		were the words washed away