A Midsummer Night's Beach
When I was a girl, still on the island
I’d sit in the sand
and brood
and revel
in what I thought was utter enlightenment
a teenage rebel
with dime-store refinement
We were all this way, and there is no shame
In the unchecked mind of us in our prime
The best nights of those
When the sea was calm and
The moon was out and
Blazingly bright, it would light up the night
Set the whole ocean glowing
Like a deep inky opal
Translucent abyss of black
Lightly flecked
With an iridescent waltz of electric blue, neon purple, alien green, and diamond white
It was on these nights
That I’d get in the water
By some stunning feat of abrasive wave action
Or possibly some secret dolphin magic
A tide pool would arise
A lagoon off the shore
Drifting and shifting over the course
Of a week, maybe two
Drifting out, drifting in
Widening out, slimming in
Shallow enough to sit in at dawn
Submerged to my neck at the day’s final yawn
Defiant of the perpetuity of the ocean at large
A toy trench off the shore
Spanning the length of a whale
Sometimes less, sometimes more
My own nascent Marianas
Never failed to provide
An off-shore haven where I could reside
These transient channels, clear and serene
Cut off from the rest of the sea
By a vast steppe of water, ankle deep
Separating me in my watery kingdom
Where no monstrous creature of the deep could reach
Out and out that plain stretched
(Only once did I test it)
Till that clean sandy bottom would begin its descent
Slowly at first, then quickly it went
Down to the unknown dark
Into a child queen of a tiny sea world, I’d transform
Springing up from the bottom of pulverized quartz
To shatter the surface between the water and the night
Send millions upon millions of droplets of brine
Glittering and spinning off into the night
I’d leap out my trench, onto that shallow plain
Sprint out to the edge of my earth and breathlessly gaze
out over the hidden deep
Reminded I’m only a guest
The ocean is neither mine nor yours to keep
Having drunk my fill of humility
I’d spin round
Fly back
Dive back down
Into my fleeting empire, my sea of tranquility
My throne resumed, I’d splash and play
With the smile of the summer Milky Way
Shooting out of the ocean, slicing the southern sky
The universe itself keeping a loving and watchful eye
As the earth showed me exactly who she was
No pretense
I’d dig my fingers into the satiny sand
And feel its realness
Every cell of my skin feeling the water rush across
As I coasted, submerged, along the bottom and lost
Myself from the rest of mankind
Then I’d rest my head back on that broad sandy mesa
Gaze up at my friends Scorpius, Aquarius, and Cassieopiea
Small ripples of water lapping at my temples
Barring defense of Descartes’ deceiving God
Not a thing in all the world could ever make me doubt
That every sensation that I felt
in those days
Was a whisper from the cosmos telling me about
The ways to be and
The ways to see and
All the states of mind that reveal
What is good, and true, and right, and real
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