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---SHELL WE?  |
Indian-summer
Wednesday on deserted shores
Washed day and night
By sloshing, shushing green-blue waves
That vie to dye
The off-white sands that stretch for miles.
The sea still tries erasing neat-etched prints
Of recent shoes and toes
In hard-packed wet land
But without success in tides receding.
I feel
warmth---from where?
Friendly eyes so round, so brown
That fix me in unwav’ring gaze,
Stimulating deepest dexter crannies
of the brain.
Abashed,
averting glance
To look at evidence
That higher waters scattered priceless little shells---
Volcano-shaped crustaceans
With a crater at the top, and scallops
Looking like an oil-co. logo---
Along with rows of ink-black coin-like pebbles
Rounded off by waves, perhaps for decades,
Till, like pearls, they glisten in reflected sunlight.
Nonchalantly
gulls, sandpipers wade in froth
Till chased by pets
In desperate need of fun and games.
The birds fly off and screech
Like double-tonguing flutes in mock despair
While dogs of many stripes,
Their mission now complete,
All congregate and sniff and greet,
Like bushy-tailed convention delegates
Who’ve lapped martinis avidly at mixers.
----On a Pacific beach
©2005
by Paul Hertelendy. The illustration is from IMSI'S Master clips
Collection, 1895 Francisco
Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first
posted Oct. 24, 2005.
Paul Hertelendy is a critic with the San Francisco Bay Area arts website www.artssf.com. To visit his website, click here: PAUL
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