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Yearning for the Coast

(Inspired by Downtown Laguna Beach)


In my dreams, I soar through

cerulean-blue skies, streaked with

paintbrush strokes of cream-white clouds

that unspool like bolls of cotton.


I hear the soft rumble of ocean waves,

as light shimmers on facets of cobalt crystal water,

while waves pad against powdered bisque sands,

scattered with shell fragments like broken porcelain.


I meander across well-worn sidewalks, where

a bounty of art surrounds me, from brightly-painted

benches that burst with the colors of summer flowers,

to towering sea life sculptures that suspend time.


I let myself absorb into the chattering crowds,

dodging the shopping bags that bounce against

knees and guard store-purchased treasures,

feeling breezes that blow gauze-scarves like pennants.


Yet, when I wake from my dreams, I will be

seventeen before I first see the shore, and

four years older still before a kiss in

the saffron-glow light of an oceanside sunset

with the man later I married, my lifetime

reminders that imagining can be a first

footprint into truth.


DVWG Guest Poet Erin Schalk

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