June 6th - JuPo Challenge 3 - long poem, playing with structure, diction and sound

Sea Shells

I.

The first time she goes shore-side
after months of churlish days she beams
at the soft squeak and shoosh of sand
beneath her calloused feet, its powdery velvet
soothing her chilblained skin. The breeze’s supple
mouth breathes life back in while the womb
of seawater baptizes toes and shins.

She marvels at cartwheeling gulls that wind shear
in thermoclines, imagines and glories in the windrush
that spreads and lifts lambent quills

then combs for sea shells to tuck away;
remembrances for wintry days.

II.

He ambles along the water’s lip and broods
the echoing dream that’s squatted in his thinkbox
for weeks - the one where febrile roots are growing,
combing through the earthen muck to braid
and mingle with another tree. He sees himself
in the dead seahorse washed above the tide line
desiccating in the sun. He looks up,

sees her walking along the shore; from behind her
the sun’s nimbus illuminates her like a moth
as it flitters before a flame.

He will fashion a wreath of driftwood roots;
a mousetrap for wintry day remembrances.

copyright 2006 by cookala