A Poem by Ben Wilkinson

The Sand

We watched this kid write his name in the sand
on the last day we spent there together,
the way he took a stick in his hand
that some dog had been chasing forever
to carefully carve out letters like quavers
and semibreves in some musical score,
not thinking of water’s slow erasures
as he quietly worked away at the shore.
To think we knew better in our rapport
of the long year to come and what it held
as if time wouldn’t give us what for
with what we imagined unparalleled.
All told, this poem’s no better than scribbling
on the beach, though each of us keeps singing.

Ben Wilkinson’s poetry collections are Way More Than Luck (2018) and Same Difference (2022), both published by Seren. His poetry has appeared widely (The Guardian, New Statesman, The Poetry Review, The Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement) and has won prizes including the Poetry Business Competition and a Northern Writers’ Award. For over a decade he has regularly reviewed contemporary poetry for national publications including The Guardian, The Poetry Review, the Telegraph, and the TLS. He is the author of a reader’s guide to the poetry of Don Paterson (Liverpool University Press, 2021).