A sudden drift of
fish startles up from the sea,
their silver backs flash.
Nightfall. The Little
Dipper pours starlight over
darkened mountain tops.
Walking a desert
track we turn and stumble on
piles of pipefish bones.
Break a branch of the
torote tree—sharp scent of
bitter orange lingers.
Palo Adan, grey
branch, half-moon: one scarlet bud
streaks the evening sky.
A Pacific wind
freshens. Hungry clouds nibble
The fattening moon.
Empty shells of a
conch graveyard glisten: so much
broken crockery.
Almost spring but the
sharp scent of beach fires burning
intimates autumn.
Walking on the beach
we startle a cricket; it
leaps into the sea.
A buzzard sits on
an abandoned power pole,
lines cut and dangling.
A beached sea lion
skull slowly submerges: sand
fills the eye sockets.
-->
First published in January 2018 in "Fresh Voices," an online publication of the Canadian League of Poets:
http://poets.ca/2018/01/19/fresh-voices-karin-cope-nan-williamson-barbara-black/
All photos were taken during the course of shore walks while sailing in the Sea of Cortez in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
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