A fall from grace I

There’s a boat on the river
that’s sad and bereft
For I’m sorry to say
there’s not a lot of it left
Abandoned to fate
several years ago now
It’s slowly been fading
from its stern to its bow

It’s been vandalised and
set on fire once or twice
and been covered in graffiti
which of course isn’t nice
Bits of it gradually
have washed out to sea
As its structure has failed
on its final journey

Yet despite all this trouble
it remains in the place
where it was last moored
on its first fall from grace
So with the eye of my camera
and the voice of my pen
I’ll record its demise
as I pass now and then

For I don’t know how long
its salted beams will
remain visible here
so I’ll continue until
It finally disintegrates
and succumbs to the deep
can no longer be seen
and finds peaceful sleep

Photos – top – small boat in 2016; bottom – in 2001

Part I of the ‘Fall from grace’ trilogy
Part II – 7 October
Part III – 8 October

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Tags: boat, Grace, poem, poetry, poetry bog, poets corner, river, ruin, sadness, Shoreham, Sussex, wreck, writing poetry