Sight

Photo: Diego Fernandes 2011

July 4th’s vigilant gaze above leftcoast cliffshores
Probe passions inside from landside an outside
Buddyless lone surfer surveys cold western swell
Where seafoam tidelines mark California edgerock

Green Pacific waters dissolve to grey Pacific mist
Fogs waft north to hide Marin and Point Reyes
Boredom of onshore hours in flat sessions
Send Buddyless and board wheeling homeward

Can the dragon guard of an approaching stormfront
Hear whispers of struggle between angry friends
C'est une question morale ancient exemplars adjure
Green eyes seek new horizons beyond the Farallones

Procrastination Proclamation

PHOTO: Diego Fernandes 2009

It wasn’t ravens and gulls
Floating sideways along on sunset clouds.

It wasn’t the colored afternoon
Moving south toward Santa Cruz.

The Pacific was speaking again
Trying to get in a last word.

Arguing with all that color
Painted by the sun’s brush

Every wave-tip running under
Clouds passing aloofly overhead.

I did get distracted a little
By all that cinematic movement.

But it wasn’t any of that wondrous
Display by nature and her children.

It wasn’t that perfectly fresh wind
Filled with all those negative ions.

Who was it that used to talk about
The benefits of oceanic negative ions?

Oh yeah! That redhead always looking sly
And brushing her hair against her hand.

But it wasn’t’ negative ions rushing
Passed my negative ion sensor.

It wasn’t any of those things
That slowed my departure.

It must have been the temporary
Freeway closure on Highway 80.

Because driving away from all that
Maritime beauty is always easy.