Walk

Posted: March 10, 2013 in Poems

I walked to the coast

Down an unpaved path through the woods

And kicked pebbles out of my flip-flops

While humming a song that stuck in my head

Which hadn’t unlodged itself since I left home.

 

At the beach, I dropped my bag beside the shade

And stood staring out at the flat water

To the nearby islands

And the serpentine coastline

And the innumerable pebble paths I imagined within

 

The sun freckled my shoulders

And I felt it burn my pale legs.

 

Soon I awoke,

Not realizing I had slept,

The only indications being the cowlicked hair,

Bright red knees,

And the rising smoke from the opposite shore.

 

I held my legs close, calf touching thigh,

And watched the thin gray line thicken at the bottom,

Rising until a wind at a certain altitude

Blew it aside into a raincloud of ash

Which, before long, walked over all my coastline paths.

 

Hours later, planes –Canadians– buzzed overhead

Carrying seawater to their destination until the cloud’s tail tapered away

And I packed up my things

And walked home under the shade

Kicking pebbles from my sandals

Humming that same song

Wondering if I had really woken up.

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