The sun-bathed beach
stands quiet
But for tireless waves that wash and wash the sand
As if to cleanse a guilty conscience for the vicious storms of
bygone winter.
A steamy day as seldom seen unfolds upon the shore,
And still the sweet-smell brine is much too icy for a swim
As the surfer crew transforms into a herd of sea lions,
Glistening black in insulated wet-suits,
Fearless, though they could be drawing sharks like flies.
The gulls are strutting
proud at water’s edge
Until they’re scattered by our sprinting dog
Who’s 10---an age he suddenly thinks is months, not years.
The moistened sand, in various shades of coal,
Comes squishing up between the wanderer’s toes
While walking on the lonely shore,
And feeling freer than the birds.
A mammoth fort built
in the sand,
With massive crater in the middle big enough for four,
Foreshadows eager, youthful shovel-wielder’s
Yonder destiny as architect or engineer.
But now he’s merely having fun
Without a heed to any budding creativity.
He builds it for the ages, like the snow-forts of our youth,
Even though the next big turn of Earth can decimate them both.
Today we see forever
on the ocean,
Spotting giant ships beyond horizon’s curve.
Mirage effects have raised the vessel profiles,
A metamorphosis that changed them into looming Babel Towers.
Even little sailboats could be taken for the mighty Flying Dutchman.
The waves keep working
hard, transporting
Shells, sand-dollars, and loose change of dazzling stones with
bright striations,
Setting all upon the clean-swept, flattened shore
Where they are on display like proud museum pieces,
Freshly placed each day.
The scanty girls in
their bikinis stroll on by.
Their effort’s wasted---but for weekends, young men aren’t
hunting here.
The only chases are the bird-dogs’,
Leaping, racing through the surf ferociously to seize the balls
Their masters heave from here half-way to Yokohama.
Older patrons sleep
beneath the sun,
So tranquil, even when the space-age gliders
Drop astonishingly from the sky
And land, as soft as feathers, several feet away,
As if invading from an outer planet in a science-fiction film.
---6/26/03, Stinson Beach
