WHILST relaxing outside O’Shea’s

On a warm, sunny spring afternoon

I peer at a photograph of Whitmore Bay

Taken in 1900. There are boats

In the summer sea and a young lad

Rides a donkey trotting through gentle waves.

A girl and woman paddle with skirts rolled

In this photograph from days of old

And a group of lads amble in the Channel.

Oh, what did they discuss in those far off days?

It does not matter anymore

For they are ghosts, youthful smiles long gone.

I close my eyes and imagine

This scene in colour on Whitmore Bay

Open them, and there are no crowds in view

Unlike that day under a sky of blue.

Guy Fletcher

Pantmawr

Cardiff