The Pier of Dreams

Elijah worked at the further end

Of the Port McDonald pier,

His job was simply to keep the light

Bright burning through the year,

All he’d see were the seagulls who

Would swoop and dive in the spray,

As the sea beat up on the jetty piles

On a cold, dark winter’s day.

 

His mother had died of a broken heart

Long after his father fled,

Had loosed the chains of his fatherhood

For a life on the sea instead,

They’d put him into an orphanage

Where he learned to abide the rod,

And found that his supplications and

His prayers fell short of God.

 

The universe was an empty space,

A vast, unseeing sky,

There wasn’t a presence watching him

As they’d said, in the days gone by,

He ached for a revelation that

Would show he was not alone,

A single soul in the firmament

In front of an empty throne.

 

He’d never managed to make a friend

In the long, sad years of life,

And women, though they avoided him

He longed for a sweet young wife,

His isolation was made complete

When he walked back to his room,

After a night on the lonely pier

In the early morning gloom.

 

One night a waif from the city streets

Sought shelter from the storm,

Huddled against the cabin wall

Where he sat, both safe and warm,

He heard her shuffle and took her in

And gave her tea from the urn,

And fell in love with her sad, grey eyes,

A waif from the city, spurned.

 

She came again, and again each night,

They talked until the dawn,

And weaved their dreams and their fantasies

Of a world they’d neither known,

But then one night the Inspector came,

A grim, ungiving man,

Who frowned, and he told the girl to leave,

He said that she was banned.

 

She waited, shivering in the cold

In the lee of the old sea wall,

Til he came hurrying from his shift

As the dawn spread over all,

He wrapped her up in his coat, and cried

He could do no more than this,

But she clung on to his lonely form

And she gave him his first kiss.

 

He took her back to his room to stay

And he watched her as she slept,

If she had opened her eyes that day

She would see Elijah wept,

‘I won’t go back to those lonely nights,’

Was the thought that gripped his mind,

To lose his midnight companion now

He thought, was most unkind.

 

That night, he told her to meet him there

At the far end of the pier,

‘Just as the clock strikes one!’ She said,

‘I’ll be there, never fear.’

He’d soaked the pier in kerosene

Just twenty yards from the end,

And when she arrived, he said, ‘You’ll see,

They won’t part us, my friend.’

 

At two in the morning, up it went

In a blaze of fire and smoke,

The centre part of the pier ablaze

As they watched it, neither spoke,

A gap appeared as it all fell in

Was extinguished by the sea,

But the end stood tall like a sailing ship

That had set the couple free.

 

The storm that ravaged the coast that night

Kept the lifeboat on the shore,

They wanted to go and rescue him,

The Inspector said, ‘What for?’

While they looked out at the raging sea

Made plans for the world they’d won,

And when the light of the dawn approached

The end of the pier had gone.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Helen Crutchett]

Very eerie and dark write. Sad but a good tale of life, separation from a loved one, no choice but to be together always. They did win in the end!

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Frightening tale...wonder why they couldn't be together, why he had to burn the both of them...

[David Lewis Paget]

He didn't burn them both, Starrleena, just the centre part of the pier which fell in, leaving them together on the far end. By the morning, this had disappeared, like their own magical sailing ship. (Suspension of disbelief, Starrleena...)

[A Soap Mess Stories]

oh i see...guess i missed some of the clues...

[Delmar Cooper]

I fiercely enjoyed this poem. It is a fine as the old balads and as rich in humorous candor as the best Robert Service. Mind you I don't say the meter can't be tweaked, but it is really too good for perfection to mar it with varnish.
cooper

[Arrinae]

This was wonderfully written. I really do love finding poetry that tells a story. Thank you for not only writing it, but sharing this with us.

[Marie]

I don't quite understand thhis. WHy couldn't Elijah have simply kept the girl with h im? Why was it necessary to burn them both. Surely there is an explanation.

[Lena M. P.]

I never know where that mind of yours will lead. All I ever know is that you will never disappoint. Another excellent poem David. Sent chills through me as I read it.