Palm Reading

What's a beach?
God's Disneyland,
Or nature's bleach?
Time's second hand,

The first game chosen
By last resorts,
Second childhood frozen
In quartz?

High school extended
By public demand,
A sandbox suspended
In surf and sand?

Halters aborted,
Towels Tarzanned,
Undershirts shorted,
Blankets mermanned,

Rollers outrun
Sweeping to land,
The shorthand of sun
In the palm of your hand?

The flooding year
Around your toes'
Souvenir
Archipelagoes?

Alarming dips of deeper sea,
Dim headlands
An infinity
Of waves and winds,

Where lifelines play
On ebb and flow,
The hazing day
In embryo,

Summer bare
Around a girl,
The day's last flare,
The ocean's curl?

Rue de Varenne
June 15th, 2003