The following piece is published as part of our TLM Young Writers series, a dedicated section of The London Magazine‘s website which showcases the work of exceptional young talent aged between 13-21, from the UK and beyond.

Creagh Factor

---

Taking in the Tides

I left
my plastic
cup behind today

cupped
my palms under
the fountain caught
its phantom silver for a second

drank up
the miracle
of our shared soul

like the
school trip
to the seaside
where I became a selkie

escaped
in the caress
of cloaks of algae
that were my second skin

and when I left
my toes endured as
tiny imprints in the shore
before the tides reclaimed them

and maybe
I had been standing
on the bank of an hourglass
as the sands of time poured away

trying to
lose myself
inside the beauty
of the drowning sea

clutching
at the waves
to catch them
in my empty throat
to gorge myself on poison

choking
on the pain
of our ocean
and the gorgeous
futility of trying to save it

_

 

Creagh Factor is a 16 year old student at St Pauls’ Girls School in Hammersmith, London. 

 

 

---

To discover more content exclusive to our print and digital editions, subscribe here to receive a copy of The London Magazine to your door every two months, while also enjoying full access to our extensive digital archive of essays, literary journalism, fiction and poetry.