Love Poem for Big River Beach

                                    For JS

The world is round, now I see

because of you, see how

the tide has made this bed

soft for us, threadbare

feet safely tucked into the rumpled covers

of sand rippling like muscles

as she kneads the shore like a shoulder

we can lean on, this spread of

of blue and brown, yellow, green, and silver

in certain light turning gray

when fog hovers like an extra blanket

when evening makes her

move a little closer every day

clearing our path of briers and blades, loose threads,

smoothing every edge for this falling

in love, this coming,

this going with the tide, with you.

Writers of the Mendocino Coast Anthology 2017: Mendocino, page 108