Night Sands

Poetry
Emma-Jane Hughes 

​

​In monochrome, we walked the Kenyan beach.
The moon, huge, low and brilliant
dazzled everything to black and white.
 
We walked east for twenty minutes, turned
to walk back, scanning the sand for turtle tracks.
No sign of anything save for our arms brushing.
 
Here, no light pollution is permitted to scare
things that won’t stand the light of day.
We hoped the untouched beach would lure them.
 
We stepped on through shoreline scrub
made solid by shadows. On the sea, phosphorescence flared.
‘This is rare,’ he said. ‘We are lucky.’
 
Westwards, his shadow swallowed mine,
made us one new shape, moving
over cooled sand, to the sea’s sighing.

​

​Emma-Jane Hughes was brought up between the sublime of a barge on the River Thames, and the ridiculous of an all-girls boarding school. She spent her childhood tucked in the cabins of a variety of small boats, reading, impervious to the scenery. Emma currently lives in Chichester where she teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, and she is working on her PhD in Contemporary Poetry. Her previous publishing credits include The Bridport Prize anthologies 2012 and 2014, and the MSlexia online magazine. Her first full collection will be published by Cinnamon Press in Spring 2017.

---