From the Ashes – Eastbourne Pier
From the ashes spirals the smoke that curls its cruel wisps to heaven, leaving the scarred twisted skeleton with faint spots of black soot on girders of steel.
The fiery fire that filled the trembling hearts with despair as tiny red sparks let go of their grasping fingers of flame fill the air with heat ever forceful as it tended to steal.
The black plume of death smothers an object to hold its course and burn a path to its own victory ploughing a furrow as it melts the structure of fame.
A new life begins to emerge after the flames of greedy passion has quenched their fill and the Fire King gasps his last breath and the embers glow with shame.
Now the aftermath of debris smouldering and damp with water and charred pieces of memories are scattered across a sea of forgotten pleasures.
The penny arcades of yesterday and music of bygone years echo through the hollow chambers, their lights extinguished forever and no crane can claim treasures.
From the ashes comes new birth, the new growth of progress as roll a penny and hammer the bell, pull a lever for three of a kind for untold wealth.
From the ashes comes the weeping sentimentality of a Victorian era of festivities to commemorate someone who died to re-instate this wooden shelf.
This wood and steel structure that points seaward, an ending that serves fishermen who stand and feel the pressure of rods quiver as a catch comes to rest.
The planked walkways and shelters from winds that sweep across its bows, the shops with gifts and trinkets, the Camera Obscura which shows Eastbourne at its best.
Gregory Gower © 25th October 2014
