The Marram Grass

when respite was deckchairs and picnics on car blankets behind windbreaks sand was blown into sheltered spaces behind driftwood and rock. dunes grew as grains of sand accumulated over time. then winds and waves ate away at everything in their path. as resilient barriers gave way to the full power of nature’s destructive forces the erosion cried out for radical intervention: something to keep things at bay and buy time. like the big plastic doors that closed behind me inside the promenade hospital. like the blue paper masks and the blue paper hats in the theatre. like the antibiotics and disinfectant on 'o' ward. like the marram grass on the dunes at ainsdale.