On the road
I’m driving
Barely nothing
Between me
And the mortal coil

Steering
Toward something
Heading for what
I don’t know

Arriving in sand
Kicking off black boots
The ones brought down
From Boston

My bare feet
Feeling
A faint but sounding beat

A circle drumming
Flame and dance
And something like romance

Dispersing seagulls
From the pagandom;

The fire hasn’t started
I have time to turn away

And I do
And I go
And I think I know

Where I’m going
Now at least
Down the beach
To that brilliant burnt

Orange on the horizon
Low and sweet
A glowing mecca
At the edge of the sea

Sidestepping bones
And waterlogged castles
I am love’s reluctant spy:

T-Rex in the sky
Kalen loves someone
A sandbar illusion
Of walking on water

These things I see
As shivers

From a wind coming
At my back
Whispering insistent
Echoes of skin

Stretched tight
Over a barrel

Thin and thrumming
In the growing night.

Mary Catherine Coolidge
All rights reserved/2009