Shadows through the low mist. And the scent of tidal grass. A new path today, my boots already slick with dew. Then faintly through the silence, the river. Can you hear it? That’s the sound of the sea, calling. How differently from yesterday, last week, last year. Fading now, though little else has changed. Time was, I would come here every day, to listen. Can you hear it? That’s the sound of the sea, calling. By then she had gone. Gone as she had promised. No longer waiting for the flashlight’s glare. No longer lying, slumped in mud, her bubbled breath mumbling, over and over, Can you hear it? That’s the sound of the sea, calling. But now, as the mist begins to lift, a softer whisper in the wind. Can you hear it? Can you hear her, calling?

beach bar gulls 
a grandchild pulls samphire 
from her mouth 

Author’s Note: The Lamby was an historical saltmarsh at the mouth of the Rhymney River in Cardiff. It later became a landfill site.

Lew Watts

is the author of Tick-Tock, a haibun collection that received an Honorable Mention in the Haiku Society of America’s 2020 Merit Book Awards, and Eira, a collection of haiku that received a 2023 Touchstone Award; both books are from Snapshot Press. Lew is also the co-author, with Roberta Beary and Rich Youmans, of Haibun: A Writer’s Guide (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2023). He is the haibun co-editor of Frogpond and holds an honorary doctorate from Bristol University. Born and raised in Wales, Lew now lives in Chicago with his wife, Roxanne Decyk. His other passions are fly fishing and gin martinis.