The Salt Ghosts of Salinas de Janubio

the immense effort and toil 

through centuries past

tirelessly tending this land's end 

mastery passed from father to son

to reap 'the white gold'

so vital to the economy 

of the island's recent past

evident in the drying flats before us

the ghosts of ancient memories 

resonate from the architecture 

of this human landscape

they dwell by the brackish pools 

they stalk the blind mauve pans 
haunting the low-lying saline pastures of sun and wind
these viscous fields

in ordered rows 

of rough bitter peck

the briny meadows 

of the sea salt pans

here seethed the sweep of 

journeying seawater

where the Atlantic ocean floods

beneath Playa de Janubio

to the lava-flow barrier 

of the crystal tinged lagoon

the salty currents of pristine brine

where the air hums desolately 

with haunted wings that beat seaward and water evaporates leaving in its wake 

a myriad of salty shades

and here on your bended knees

your camera steady, straining

to capture the salt ghosts

and immortalise their beauty

in the cat's-paw breeze

Salinas de Janubio