January 21, 2017

My head a hive

the tangle of thoughts and stings

and tears

yearning for my daughters

and the hand of my husband

while shunning the crowds.

I drove myself

alone

to Pine Point

with the crows and gulls speckling the sky above.

I passed the shuttered summer houses

and walked down the path of snow

and sand to the beach

as the sky began to darken.

I kept to myself when people passed

moving away from them like the plovers that scurry

from the incoming waves

and I shot a quick smile if they got too close.

I listened to the roar

of waves as they curled

and crashed

and found

for the first time ever

whole sand dollars

in the ebbing tide

three of them

salty and wet and gritty

one for each of those

I’m not with today.