04-04-2016, 11:57 PM
Between a Wolf and a Dog
The beach is a place
where many things can happen or be found.
Once in a school field, as a child, I found a fifty pence piece,
which I mistook for a Roman coin.
That is nothing compared to the beach,
where one might find a real Roman coin...
or a body washed up in the surf,
the ocean giving our suicides back
like that ugly, ill-fitting pair of jeans
that a distant cousin bought you for Christmas.
Between a wolf and a dog
I stood on the beach, yesterday,
as it rolled in the bathtub of twilight
like a fat, contented emperor.
This is the place where muggings and murders happen, at night,
when shapes in the darkness flicker
like sentient shadows, then harden into slices of steel
that dig around in your ribs, tiny uninvited guests.
But this is also the place where people walk dogs, by day,
meet friends and family, picnic.
A place where the shadows are locked in the sand,
to be safely subdued and played with.
Like a dog to a wolf, the beach in the day turns to night,
and I mount the steps to the promenade.
The beach is a place
where many things can happen or be found.
Once in a school field, as a child, I found a fifty pence piece,
which I mistook for a Roman coin.
That is nothing compared to the beach,
where one might find a real Roman coin...
or a body washed up in the surf,
the ocean giving our suicides back
like that ugly, ill-fitting pair of jeans
that a distant cousin bought you for Christmas.
Between a wolf and a dog
I stood on the beach, yesterday,
as it rolled in the bathtub of twilight
like a fat, contented emperor.
This is the place where muggings and murders happen, at night,
when shapes in the darkness flicker
like sentient shadows, then harden into slices of steel
that dig around in your ribs, tiny uninvited guests.
But this is also the place where people walk dogs, by day,
meet friends and family, picnic.
A place where the shadows are locked in the sand,
to be safely subdued and played with.
Like a dog to a wolf, the beach in the day turns to night,
and I mount the steps to the promenade.
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe