Spring Break Iii - Finding Ourselves In a New Place

I brush back Her wave of turquoise hair She winces but doesn’t yet Pull back From the salt in her wounds And the sand on her hips From the laughing seagulls snatching Last night’s scrap of words Leftover From the plates and lips Of Sunny Isles Pier Our winter was very dark and very long So far away from here Who am I to make such a presumption? To be so bold with the sea? It’s unlike me To have the strength To pocket a seashell found on the beach To rise from the dark of my hotel balcony Kneel at the foot of the ocean As the sky lightens to emerald A non-believer Petitioning the universe for absolution While the shadow Of a forgotten beach umbrella cartwheels down the shore The ocean’s tide falling back To that crease of Earth Where our love still gently sleeps At the mouth of clam Closing Orange sky to green sea Pearl moon A lover’s gift Spit out then swallowed Hours before Re-opened now With the tender thought of re-consideration Burst of flame Sunrays My wife worn out From our first night of margaritas The air soft as cloth tending to her burned skin Still in bed Up there In our high-rise hotel The tower cast in new sunlight Standing straight up Brushing itself off A waterfall of cascading gold coins Shutters and railings rattling and glinting In the new hot wind. Wake up my love Wake up to our new day. Come down to me See what we thought we had lost.