Cool green wisps of grass
Tickle my skin left warm
From the sun and I’m home
Again wrapped in quilted
Memories of my life by the sea.

The shore calls me to it.
Water pushing my toes into sand
And I’m reveling in the joy
Of dirt again. The force pulls me out
But I fight it and fall back laughing.

I contrast it to the rocky
Coarseness of the jetty we used
To fish off of in Belmar Beach
Each Easter Sunday, our skin left
Oily from the leaking boats.

Dad’s hook caught below your
Backside pocket. He hooked you again.
And he was proud of me. A Clammer’s
Daughter who baited her own hooks.
Never any real need to catch a fish.

I fought for the shoreline at Sandy
Hook and mooned the big apple
for dumping it's trash of my shore.
I made a promise to the sea
that I would never forget it.

06/22/2005

Author's Note: I've lived my entire life by the ocean. I'm contemplating moving and some names of cities have come up inland. I don't think I could do it.

Posted on 06/22/2005
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