An Afternoon of Late Summer

An Afternoon of Late Summer

The smell of the ocean was missing today
Her eyes could see the blue between the trees
The sailboats curiously flat.


no seagulls calling welcome.

She wondered where the ocean smell was.
On that other side where she first entered?
that first day - high on top of the new campus center
the gull - looking at her, she at it-
Hello.

The shiny new buildings, the gulls, the ocean view...

And who says hello here? Today? Now?

She looks first at the sunflowers
There are six, one is starting to droop.
She had never noticed them before.

The airport is nearby
Planes run like car traffic,
one after another take off.
It is very different than the lone sound of a plane
Far off and infrequent
that she's used to.

Metal moving -Noise is a unified force
of planes, and white Crystal Transport buses
with orange and purple stripes,
loud music from the radio station
and voices.

There is a fence of conversation mingled together- everyone anonymous
like how everyone's voices blend together at the beach
where a seagull, or a shout, or a child's cry will rise above.

Things rise here too, if you listen.
Laughter above a girl smoking in a group of six.
It sounds childlike, fresh, and unplanned.

People come closer
Words separate and solidify

"class talk"
"small talk"
"catch-up talk"
"what's going-on talk"
"making plans talk"

The click of shoes as as woman with brightly dyed hair,
passes by - her key chain has the school's logo.

Maybe it is a slightly burnt smell today,
a pigeon - too close to her lunch,
a sky that swirls with different hues - of white, blue, and gray.
McCormick's Hall's windows as sky mirrors,
the darkest part of the sky where the sun tries...,
a lone ant, down to her left.

She notices people walking alone.
She looks longer at them.
Sees backpacks and purpose.

A dark bird flies out of her sight.


(written 9/20/2004)