At one with everything

The depth of summer
The end of July
A scorching heat dome rides over the West
Temperatures in the 100s
Same in Spain, France, Portugal and even London
Fire clouds over two continent
No relief in sight
No rain
Only more blistering heat__
I lie on a damp shelf of sand
Ditch Plains Beach
The cold North Atlantic laps at my toes
Temp high 60s
Waves break on the beach
Vacationers swarming from the parking lot
Loaded with chairs unbrellas, food, blankets kids
Everyone happy with a sunny day on the beach
Not a worry of fires or drought
Temperature rising into the 70s
Dog owners call to their dogs
A small dog licks my face
My first snuzzle in months
An apology from the owner
I smile
I haven't spoken since the dawn
Not a single word
Not even in my head__
I shut my eyes
I roll on my stomach
Onto the damp sand
Open my eyes
Millions of grains of sand beneath me Not one with a name
I pick one
Clyde
Close my eyes
Open
Clyde once more millions of grains of nameless sand__
Same as me
A Neanderthal
One of the last
But
Also one of billions of living creatures
On Terra
More one with the sand than my own kind__
Time for my morning plunge
Into the North Atlantic
A mother to us all
Me
The sand
All one__

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Much more to come.

Ditch Plains Past Summer

Sand Between My Toes # 42

At the beach
Ditch Plains
>A gray Sunday morning in late July__
Sitting on a weathered wooden chair
Weekenders wandering the strand in Montauk hoodies__
I
In jeans shirt and trousers
My cuffs rolled
Not thinking of Michaelangelo
Or TS Eliot__
Breathe
Again
Breathe
A sip of coffee
A day off
A calm ocean
A surfing school bobbing on calf-high swell
Two tourist fishing boats
Close to shore
Anglers hanging lines off the port side
Two young blonde girls
Sipping smoothie
Sand between their toes__
I shut my eyes
Smell the sea
Listen to the waves
Rippling on the sand
Content without worry
For my family or friends or the world
Free of worries for myself
With sand beteween my toes___
80 of the 360 degrees
Around me
My vision
Freed of people
The horizon from Shagmoor Bluff to the Ditch Plains rocks
Just sea and sky and me
Content
Alone
With the sound of waves in my ears___
And sand between my toes

Later

Walking west I comb the beach for flotsam, mostly plastic borne to shore by the tides. Invisible to people, but I dream of a world before THE GRADUATE and a future without plastic.

Later

Taking the 11:47 train to Jamaica then Atlantic Terminal and a walk across Fort Greene walk home to Myrtle Avenue. Sand in my toes all the way.

Montauk # 29

Autumn morning
Again
Ditch Plains
Off-shore easterly
Surfers riding a chest-high swell
Seagulls skating the crest
A bright sun
No sunglasses
Squint
Richie Boy thinking
Work or surf___
A fishing boat chugging to harbor
At least twenty aged surf bums
On the break___
We
On the beach
Richie Boy
A friend for almost fifty years
On a bench
Rubbing his knee
Surveying the ocean___
1993
Bingin Beach
Bali
A forever left
Forever overhead
Too big for me
No matter
I go out
On a borrowed board
A potato chip___
A big set coming in
Paddle
Over the first wave
Paddle
Over the second wave
Richie and me over
My arms al dente noddles
The third wave
Richie makes to the lip
Look back
His face horror
Then the wave buries me in a washing machine
There is no up or down
No richie
No Bali
Only the head over heels tumble
Over the coral reef___
Under a long time
Thirty seconds
Forty
Pop to the surface
Grab a breath buried again
Longer
At the mercy
Of Lord Baruna
The Balinese God of the Sea
I don't pray
I'm an atheist
Also
I'm too busy drowning
Gulp Glug Glup___
Spit up on the sand
Blowing out ocean
My beach boy
Relieved
I back from the dead
Reincarnated once more
Into this body
It wasn't the first time
Nor the last
No more surfing that day
Time to spit out ocean
And drink beers into the night
With Richie
The massage girls
On the Bingin Cliff
Sampai Jumpa___
Time elastic
Snap forward to October 2024
Ditch Plains
Montauk
Richie
Rubs his knees
Yesterday morning
A good hour in the line-up
Pushing it hard__
Now rubbing his knees
No surf today
We look at each other
We work-bound
But
Just not yet
Thank you for life Lord Baruna
Terima kasih banyak___