Ode To the Periwinkle

Ode To the Periwinkle In thinking about it today, it was some time ago, But I can still feel the cool bath house concrete, As my feet found relief from the hot summer sand. The tasty periwinkles were always my quest, Small edible sea snails that were like caviar to me, Not just me, but the whole lot of us, the clan I guess, And so, we took our colorful plastic beach pails, The same ones used to make castles and fill moats, The same ones bought cheaply at some five and dime, And we trekked through the hot grainy beach sand, To the endless, jagged, rocky, Atlantic coastline. There, among the sea urchins, and rock weed, and seaweed, and small minnows, close to shore, The periwinkles clung fast to the slick black rocks, Craggy, shoreline rocks, worn smooth by time and tide, Rocks the periwinkles needed, for all life’s sustenance. But once we had cooled our feet in the gentle lapping waves, We begin pulling the small shells from their rocky homes, The periwinkles were abundant then, and we took our fill, And each one of us topped our cheap pails to the brim. There was much we gathered from the ocean, way back then, Clams, quahogs, flounder, cod, mussels, a smorgasbord really, But today, it is the periwinkle that shall have a moment to shine, Today, this small creature will cast a light on so many yesterdays, Like an old lighthouse beacon, from some bygone summer night.