Beach Reverie

Drab sand kissed by the cold Pacific,
studded with black basalt outcrops framed by surf
you're not the raw-silk coral beaches
I remember from the Indian blue velvet Ocean

and the lodgepole bent to the south wind
doesn't recall the whispering transparent shade of coconuts
nor do tarry tangles of bull-kelp holdfasts
bring back delicate and poisonous scribbled cone shells

even the salt of this sea is diluted by runoff
and can't match the fierce eye-burn of remembered salinity
bouyant with gemlike fish embedded
one thing remains unending roar and whisper: Come home.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside