Hi Gardawg
This is a carefully observed piece. It reminds me of the little village
on the east coast of England where I spent MY formative years, and that
too had local luminaries who were likely to leave vehicles abandoned in
creeks.
If I had a crisicism and it has been picked up by others on the board as
well, it is that I think the final stanza needs ANOTHER 4 lines to round
it off and to distance you back from it.
STEVE RUDD
-----Original Message-----
From: The Pennine Poetry Works [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Gary Blankenship
Sent: 08 May 2003 17:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New: South Beach, Low Tides - the poem now there
(Thanks, Sue.)
South Beach, Low Tides
When I smell onions, I remember
clam chowder simmering in the double-wide
on a Memorial Day weekend afternoon,
fresh baked bread ready to remove from the oven,
clams dug from the granite sand of South Beach,
morning fog so thick it plugs up your nose
with salt air and the odor of dead crabs at low tide.
When I see your new scarlet dress, I think
of a windsock riding along the beach
a vain attempt to fly a sock mistaken for a kite,
Willy's red pickup stuck in the creek,
another futile effort to beat the tidal flow.
Hazel claimed it was the fourth he left
stuck in the mud to rust until it drifted to China.
When I hear a train whistle, I'm taken back
to days when the Southbound came through at 5 am
and the Northbound at dinner, the first our alarm
to rise to dig, the evening run for pennies on the track, flattened
souvenirs found many years later among sand dollars, kite string, Nehi
bottle caps, and a ruby shoe, size 2, rescued from the surf.
When I taste hot chocolate laced with whipped cream,
memories of peanut butter sandwiches, wild strawberries,
root beer Kool Aid, burnt hot dogs and marshmallows
flood back like high tide washing an empty beach clean
IF MY MAIL BOUNCES, MAIL [log in to unmask] AS AN ALTERNATIVE.....April
Arthur Seeley and Gary poetry poems at:
http://gardawg.homestead.com/gardawg.html --- Writer's Hood at
http://www.writershood.com/..... Poets for Peace.... ˇPoemas sí, balas
no!
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