Summer Squall

The ocean, eternal, spreads wide Reflecting slate, somber storm clouds While beachgoers, eight stories down, Gather towels and scurry fast From a squall shedding white lightning, Dull, delayed drumbeat of thunder Touching my ears as your fingers Cover my hand on the railing; Surf line we watch fade, grow obscured In a curtain of pallid rain Encroaching the pale, vacant sand As single-file palms bob green heads When an updraft, cool and sudden, Tousles your soft and silken hair And balloons your light cotton shift— Bare beauty nearly shared— We retreat, sliding glass door to, Sequestering the world away Save your bold, yearning expression, Gentle kisses to hungry lips, Cotton slipping, slacking, falling, Then persistent, gusting patter Of rain like long-pent love.