View of the River Thames from Gravesend Promenade

Those benches are for sitting on,
looking forward
and leaving the town behind.

Before you is the grey width of Gordon’s Walk,
empty of the echo of summer footfalls,
greying into the high-tide Thames’
industrial-steel sheeting on industrial scale.

And the River could be level tarmac;
you would dip your toe and hit road,
thinking you could walk across, direct,
to Tilbury.

But the tug boats and small steamers
dispel all that, and you remain, sitting,
watching the occasional hull-quivers
which show and are gone in seconds
like the coot that decides to dive.