Filigreed silhouettes stir against the calm of the grey-blue sea; wisps of pink float in the transparent sky, a wash of orange and yellow marks the horizon: Dawn over St Brelade’s Bay. Breathing softly in her sleep, Bettina lies sprawled on the bed. Parisian, she’s at Ulm, preparing the agrégation in English literature. Seeking a change of scene, she’d come to Jersey on a whim.
And now, as she sleeps amid the night’s tumultuous sheets, I observe the awakening day: Milky in the transparent sky, pink floats; orange and yellow mark the horizon, silhouettes blacken the blue-grey sea: Like the details of the dawn you are inexhaustible, and everything is mine to learn.