Big brown
back  pelicans

sit a top

their

matriarch

perches

casting

their cynical

stares of

judgment

to all

who happen

by.


fat Mexicana

fisherman

skinny

Asian

fisherman

throw their

sights and

lines

beneath

the horizon

line.


dinner or

die.


two teen

lovers

holding hands

as their

walk

under this

splintered

pier,


stars in

their

eyes you

can see

that even

from

way up

here.


totally oblivious

to the half

eaten sand *****

that lie

lifeless

under their

feet.


and the tide

rolls in,

and the tide

rolls out.


and yet

to know

how I

fit and

breathe

amongst

all of this.


escapes me.


like the

punch line

of a bad joke

at a

holiday party


now without

you for

the first

time in


my life.