Custodial Duties

Plastic black tires roll over brown and yellow sand. A little boy pushes his toy dump truck across the beach. He’s collecting seashells. as he passes, I chance a look into the back of his trunk, trying to catch a glimpse of the beautiful haul. In its back were all the ugliest black and white shells you’ve ever seen. I couldn’t admire the beauty of those shells but I am still in awe of the purity of that kid’s soul–cleaning the beach of all the ugly shells and leaving pink and yellow beauties for the rest of us lazy collectors.