Between here and there one elongated time
that began at the farthest reach
glazed black pinnacles of rock
minarets thrust skyward
merging with wind-scoured boulders
blocking passage north-northwest
where you headed down the long beach
you and sea and wet sand
willets a-dither at the foam edge of receding wave
that liminal moment of return
a few picnic tables up-slope by the leveling
where all come down
from the cluster of unlike cottages and No Parking signs
past women leashed to dog companions
two bulky-jacketed Latinos one bursting laughter
on his cell phone
the older other looking down bored or sad
farther on fewer came
stink a six-foot decay
seal head turned as if pillowed
eyeless with a look of longing
its pinkish tail intact almost alive
a crow furiously tugging at an unyielding
gut tendon
footprints dwindled to pawprints then
just sand and snarled hair
you went beyond your strength faster
despite your cane digging in
you went with an urgency you did not
attempt to comprehend
inlandward the beach widened in ash hued ripples
like driedout ocean floor
the grass-skulled dune lowered opposite the waters
rose a wall of uninterrupted shade-green
a patch of gray beach beneath a lone dome-shaped tree
there the water waveless
here diminishing waves where water greened
midway the surface strangely stalled
. above the mingling
a black body of seal arcing then another
a duck bobbing in swells and subsides
the low dune reached the dark wet edge
a narrow ledge a bank
you stepped around
. beheld
. a wide expanse
the broad estuary cradled in bluff and viridians
the river disappearing in mist-blue hills beyond
Oh wild imaginings
but for the sign
Lawson’s Landing in red
at the left bank cove