“Summer is for animals/the ocean is erotic…”
--William Meredith, “Rhode Island”

Summer is for animals, the ocean is erotic.
the bivalves play,
open, shut, a vaginal display,
sea cucumbers throb,
starfish dance and intertwine,
crabs skitter about,
looking for mates in the sand,
dolphins suggest a sensual array
of two in the dunes,
suits discarded,
making sand angels,
splaying, rolling,
chasing little mollusks back to the surf.

Summer is for animals, the ocean is erotic.
Your mouth is like sea salt.
Your seaweed hair tangles me
like a little striped fish.
I am caught in your green net.
Mouths collide in primal struggle
tongues fighting for dominance.
Your hips suggest the ebb and flow,
and waves of shuddering desire
grab us, pull us together like tides.
We are the two-backed beast of the beach
returning to our ancestors
for a moment or two.

We are the animals of the sea,
washed in the sun,
washed in the water,
salted and sanded, caked with our sex,
as we lie side by side, after,
letting the foam wash over us,
letting the tide take us out
to a summer secret place
where we are the shells,
the fish, the kelp,
the whole biocycle,
in one, or two.


[First published in Mind Caviar, May 2001.]

10/04/2001

Posted on 10/04/2001
Copyright © 2025 Bruce W Niedt