Beach Walk

the first time I saw a beach of pebbles I thought of you
how sand sprawled into forever, the way my foot sinks into it,
it has no beauty compared to this sound of water
receeding over pebbles, the tree trunks humbled by l
anding there on the beack of rock, so fortunate to be away
from gritty sand and those broken shells that stick into my tender arches
the way you stuck into me with sharp broken edges,
like a broken fossil, or the snail’s home
abandoned and broken by the raging waves,
how I hoped for smooth pebbles, dark and emerald
under Pacific waters and some pink like the parts I’d shown you
and standing on miles of smooth I laughed at my marginal self
wondering where you were and what jagged thing wasunder your feet