Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member

Members

Poems

I remember those days on the seawall;
wondering if the waves would come and crash
over our heads, hoping to be swept out
by the vicious tide, but only to turn back
and drift ever slowly back to the path
that haunted as the black ominous storm.

But you always stared out into that storm
and at the last second the sad seawall
was to your back, and on the brave new path
you set out, standing to the rise and crash
of the waves. “Just don’t forget to come back”
I’d scream, knowing the storm washed my words out.

I always knew not to follow you out
to the shore. You and I both knew this storm
and that the only safety was left back
at the comforting height of the seawall,
but somehow you ignored the flash and crash
of lightning set to us on a clear path.

But what if I had followed in your path?
Perhaps if I decided to walk out
to that shore, and allowed the waves to crash
at my feet, that the dark and frightening storm
would ease, the dauntingly distant seawall
no longer beckoning me to turn back.

Yet somehow it seemed simpler to turn back,
maybe it would be fair to say my path
and yours were not the same, and the seawall
could not stop you from your adventure out.
When the drop fell, were you lost to the storm?
I wished I could protect you from the crash.

Or maybe there had never been a crash…
you always seemed to find a new way back
at the gentle conclusion of the storm.
I’d see you strolling up your normal path
and the waves from the shore would follow out
to rest peacefully along the seawall.

“Maybe in the next storm…” I’d follow that path
and I will not look back to the seawall,
but out to the black cloud and blinding crash.
CK Baker  Apr 2017
Sotavento
CK Baker Apr 2017
Willets cull the seawall
snapper on the grill
rock ***** swoon
in shallow lagoons
long boats pass
under quiet
palm shade

Plovers dance and flutter
handrails frayed and torn
graffiti spots
at lovers rock
frigate-birds fall
from a high
noon sun

Thatched roof on a mud wall
fish flags settle score
anchors arch
in front line march
pillar cracks form
under rust brown scars

Elegant tern and grebe
watchmen fall in cue
children play
on crested waves
whimbrels and notchers
perch above Tentaciones

Striped pelícanos
the bandits of the sea!
merchants grow
in steady flow
siblings jostle
in a tide cooled sand

Heerman gull and boobie
durango smoke in yurt
boiler shrimp
and puffer blimp
castle buckets and scrapers
under a dusk light cheroot

Six pulls on a lead line
painted toes in sand
shearwater run
in a rainbow sun
the portly mexicano
flaunts his tacos
and wares

Rooster house for swordfish
bamboo shoots and sails
broken shells
and ocean swells
rise
on the
perfect
La Ropa bay
Adellebee Mar 2016
I am hopeful now
Walking the seawall straightens me out
The clouds and the waters
One foot in front of the other

Walking the seawall
To my day to day
The choices I've made

One foot in front of the other
Dogs on leashes
Babies in strollers
Or on daddies in front

The seawall
Windy and peaceful
One foot in front of the other

Birds eat
Fresh crab meat
The circle of life
Tug of war
One foot in front of the other

Runners run.
Cyclists, bike
Childs play

The walk to work
One foot in front of the other
my walk to work