Here I am just as a soldier,
A rough and humble man;
Hairy and unkempt again.
Spent a year in training camp
Now I’m out here on the line,
Every night my rest’s a tent.
Wind keeps blowing me all over,
Stand to face pouring rain.
Friend you are and will always be –
One day may turn out just fine.
A lofty sunset we shall see
Watching gulls play the breeze.
With my heart I levy will
Faith forever you shall be
My guiding star, my dreams of free
My hope and evermore.
I paused to reflect on waves
Splashing my reflecting peace.
I knew that twinkling waves
Were unspent thoughts
Still waiting for my fancy.
Yet here I was, clear of thought,
Amongst children thinking it funny
To throw plastic cups in the sea,
Unaware of volunteers
Cleaning her from bow to stern;
Amongst gulls pecking at my toes;
Amidst catered driftwood
Aligned in rows.
Yet my thought was still overwhelmed
By sweet shining sun:
Heavenly as she chose.
And I lay still here
Until memory aligned again with thought,
And the sea was ebb and flow.
Gulls call out to friends floating away
Upon tides pushing this way and that
Messy streams of salty water
Crisscross a retreating ocean’s exposé
Thick stalks of grass bloat the shoreline
That’s overwhelmed by sun bleached logs
Spewed upon the edges
As if laid there in organized inventory
While off in the distance a black tornado of birds
Hover around the surface searching
Blackbirds sing from thorny blackberry patches
That separates green from thousands of shades of grey
Mimicking darkening clouds rolling above
Ready to send droplets propelled by gravity
But off in the distance, upon the horizon
Voluptuous and impressive clouds
Change from glaring white to navy blue
Interspersed with teal shades of open sky
And a darkened silhouette of a distant island
Looms ominously like the jetty
That breaks the horizon line into greys and sky blues
Willows blow
Sand is moved
Gulls scavenge
BBQ smokes
And I join
Friends around
Summer grass
A beach fest