Remnant of Yesterdays

Parts of Dungun coastal line are slowly pushed inland by ferocious sea as days gone by. They took them away, leaving a little behind. We hardly see spinifex grass nowadays, the thorny vegetation that steals the look of sea urchin, which once detached, would roll along the sandy dunes for children to chase after. That alarms nearby crabs to scurry themselves sideways into their holes until they hear footsteps' pitter-patter fade away behind the rough note of roaring waves surging towards the sodden footprints. In December, the sea gets its full power from the moon, and becomes so short tempered that it always wants to go against the land in full force, destroying everything within its reach. The severely destroyed seaside road along Teluk Lipat beach once became the shameful evidence of land's (and the human's too) defeat in the worst war of nature in modern Dungun history, now that children can no more chasing after spinifex grass and annoy crabs' daily business. Local authority has placed concrete structures that supposedly fix the destroyed area. We cannot foresee the future of our beach as the sea has a mind of its own. Many Decembers past, it has probably become better at adapting to the changes, and the concrete waves breaker are only shooing the waves away to other area instead. What left now as the remnant of yesterdays are short beach line of Sura Tengah and its next door neighbour, Sura Hujung that holds the door to the realm of elves and jungle spirit of eerie Bukit Bauk. Recently in July, I stopped by Sura Tengah beach in one Dungun afternoon, only to look at the calm sea and speak with it and the mind wondered when this beauty will last, before I could bring along my beautiful missus in her sheer cotton t-shirt and kain batik jawa.