W. G. Sebald’s Last Walk
On a lee shore
Cliffs a cumbrous trek
Packed sandwich thermos
Bird book
Cheap camera
For the occasional blurry
Remembrance mostly
Shading to sea mist
Clouds masking
The horizon
A single skiff far out
Then nothing
But a return to
Footsteps in chalky
Sand
Recalling vestigium
Meant trace or
Footstep
The etymology
Too
Of vestige
Friable hours
Disintegrate
In late afternoon
With an ashplant’s
Dots a code
Never broken
So a watchful
Return
Backtracking
Along the strand
Arrows
Ineluctably toward
A steering wheel
At night
In Norfolk
But for now
Stepping
Down a sand dune
Is merely
One of the possible
Paths
Casually
Taken with boots
Macintosh
Cigarette pack
Alert for
A sudden wave
Let these stanzas be
The slightest of
Epitaphs
Words
Darken
A page
Gulls
Skim
Shallows