Tuesday Poem: Last Beach Poem

October Kite On The Beach

A silent delicate bird
floating, serene
in the steady wind,
oblivious, detached
and out of reach,
above the tired fishermen
toting poles and empty
buckets to the car,
the line of beach-chaired women
trading stories, mouths ajar,
their laughter interweaving
with the screech and
whine of hungry gulls,
the whoops from teenage boys
riding the waves in wetsuits,
looking like happy seals
until they rise out of the surf,
and drag their boogie boards
behind them on the sand,
the wild applause as newlyweds
make their entrance at the Surf Club,
and the band kicks in so they can
begin their Mr. and Mrs. dance.

All the while, kite leans,
shimmies, then steadies above it all,
like the lives we put on hold to come here,
attached to us by invisible string.

Here is our chance to see
how beautiful they look at a distance,
how normal, even happy,
as time, like the wind, pushes hard,
how gracefully they hold.