Even Prompter

Beaches 2

Beaches 2

Any beach will do,
if it’s sand and the sun is hot,
the breeze fresh
and the waves white-tipped
and foaming as they run,
hissing, up the shore.

The strand of Muizenberg,
vast and empty, embracing
the serried ranks of breakers
hurrying to crash upon the sands
and the child I, careless on belly board,
ecstatic in the waves.

On the beach at Beira,
Indian Ocean blue with the sky,
ceaselessly pounding its offshore trench
to catch unwary waders with the tide,
while the rust red wreck moulders,
stranded on the sands.

Wide and endless, the Norfolk dunes
meet the grey expanse of the North Sea,
cold and still salty (I tasted it
to be sure), the sun bright above
and a cool breeze blowing forever,
we doze behind a flapping windbreak.

And so to Galveston off season,
sea front near deserted and storms promised
for the morrow, age makes it easy
to just drive the length of the sandy beach,
returning to crab and seafood at Joe’s,
huddled in the warmth inside.

Yes, I’ve sat on many a beach,
dug my toes in the sand,
allowed the day to pass in idleness
as the sounds of the sea shushed our cares
and the cries of the gulls
made memories eternal.


Line Count: 36
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 6 2021
Prompt: Sitting on the beach on a nice summer day.