BAY

BAY

the blue of cold lateness stares where sanded dusk

has swallowed sun's loose shadows, blandly disclosing

how quick the wearied wet has shrunk to damp,

limp,

a frown of slipping waves, dispersing tidal care upon

the shrinking wrinkles of a tousled beach, insistent flaps

of sweeping fret, concerting wipes concealing dredges

of fruitless salt,

crust,

the shiver of distance begs brine-washed eyes, contracts

the foundered flesh to wonder on a closer calm, the crawl of touch

and hunger's wink, now chilled and scraped and suffered clean,

the yearn of cloth for traitored skin.