At Holly Beach With You
a thousand cheap vacations
with free seagulls and sunburns
all you can step on beach jetsam
and the purifying grit of Gulf waters
a working family's paradise spree
population you and me
in a couple hundred cobbled cottages
shambled alongside cramped alleys
with ample crawl space for cars
shacks but for location and personality
Aunt Sally's Sea Side Pelican's Pouch
Imitation Crab Cake Kitchenette By the
Day or Week No Pets Please Wipe Your Feet
with spawling lopside family-owned general store
Asian mercantile and cajun-fried deli counter
with overripe produce abandoned even by flies
boiled eggs suspended in time's pungent solution
and even older sausage that could salinate a bathtub
frozen-in-imagination seashell accretion creations
racks of gimme cap signage and road map anthologies
the translucent miracle of Virgin Mary nightlight row
and zinc-nosed oddly shaped thorax people
flopping around in too-loose and too-tight
bulk-sale trunks and undaring two-pieces
dashing gleefully toward the water while
picking their way around fish bones carefully
being examined by an extended dog family
and finally hamming it up gently in the mild surf
rechristening their kids in the refreshing froth
this is fun, you are fun, your name shall be fun
tyke-size plastic pails and shovels
children's heirlooms
burrow into glinty grains washed smooth
and worn to a dazzle
packed shining into rising mounds
patted expertly into bulging redoubts
that hermit crabs will sidle around
once sunlight subsides and
the spreading edge of horizon
becomes the cooling saline haze of night
removing from sight the distant offshore
platform hulks with their derrick spires
and towering grain elevators at the port
all scattering anew to the limits of thought
vanquished once and again until
partway through the drive home
and especially Monday morning
but now far down the curving shore
just the gas station lights and overhead
the occasional breakthrough star
At Holly Beach With You
Larry Piltz
Indian Cove / Austin, Texas / May 2008
Sunset at Holly Beach.
with free seagulls and sunburns
all you can step on beach jetsam
and the purifying grit of Gulf waters
a working family's paradise spree
population you and me
in a couple hundred cobbled cottages
shambled alongside cramped alleys
with ample crawl space for cars
shacks but for location and personality
Aunt Sally's Sea Side Pelican's Pouch
Imitation Crab Cake Kitchenette By the
Day or Week No Pets Please Wipe Your Feet
with spawling lopside family-owned general store
Asian mercantile and cajun-fried deli counter
with overripe produce abandoned even by flies
boiled eggs suspended in time's pungent solution
and even older sausage that could salinate a bathtub
frozen-in-imagination seashell accretion creations
racks of gimme cap signage and road map anthologies
the translucent miracle of Virgin Mary nightlight row
and zinc-nosed oddly shaped thorax people
flopping around in too-loose and too-tight
bulk-sale trunks and undaring two-pieces
dashing gleefully toward the water while
picking their way around fish bones carefully
being examined by an extended dog family
and finally hamming it up gently in the mild surf
rechristening their kids in the refreshing froth
this is fun, you are fun, your name shall be fun
tyke-size plastic pails and shovels
children's heirlooms
burrow into glinty grains washed smooth
and worn to a dazzle
packed shining into rising mounds
patted expertly into bulging redoubts
that hermit crabs will sidle around
once sunlight subsides and
the spreading edge of horizon
becomes the cooling saline haze of night
removing from sight the distant offshore
platform hulks with their derrick spires
and towering grain elevators at the port
all scattering anew to the limits of thought
vanquished once and again until
partway through the drive home
and especially Monday morning
but now far down the curving shore
just the gas station lights and overhead
the occasional breakthrough star
At Holly Beach With You
Larry Piltz
Indian Cove / Austin, Texas / May 2008
The Rag Blog
Labels:
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