Ice Water

I venture to a coastal town

to escape the desolate rain

I find my former seaside haven,

now, inexplicably, an icy plane

•

a graveyard of shelly fragments

ice water and frigid terrain

where seabirds find a place to nestle,

under their breasts, turquoise eggs lain

•

So it goes, as the tide reigns in

where life begins and where it ends

only crests of yellowish heads

protrude from drifting, sandy dens

•

I walk along, my chest aching

for those sad, beautiful creatures

who felt safe enough, then betrayed

by deceptively cold weather

•

I reach for one to gently swoop

it into crystalline waters

an elegant wing unfurls

an eyelid flutters

•

its fragile body

almost alive