Endurance

It's quite amazing how wood can endure in the most hostile of conditions. Bathed in the last of the days rays, this groyne build of sturdy timbers shows the scars of countless tides and numerous storms, and yet still holds firm. The uprights have been sculpted into smoothed irregular shapes, the horizontal beam surface, scalloped, as if by ancient tools; all a combination of wave and sand and pebble. You wouldn't think that wood could be so strong under such adverse conditions, you'd think the constant shift from aerobic to anaerobic would lead to speedy decomposition. But, not so. The ironwork which binds the timbers on the other hand, the plates, nuts and bolts, have not fared so well, rusted and corroded by the salty brine, they remain only as increasingly formless masses.