See Them Next Year - Horseshoe Crabs - 2025

Last weekend I spotted the last horsecrab carapace on Ditch Plains beach. Earlier in the month I spoke with Mike the Marine officer who said that their breeding numbers had been decreasing year by year. I was lucky to see females without their numerous beaus under the Broad Channel Bridge on Howard Beach. A glorious evening wading through the algaed waters of the Jamaica Bay following a creature destined to survive mankind's upcoming collective self-extinction. I'm spending time every weekend working at jewelry store in Montauk at the end of NY 27. I sleep in a tent under the stars listening to the waves and waking to birdsong. Awaiting the horseshoe crabs of 2026.

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.

The Barren Pine Barrens

Crossing the Stretch

From Amagansett to Montauk
Through the dead Pine Barrens
The trees killed by pine beetles
Almost all of them
Sap sucked dry by the pest
Save for those saved from the blight__
Pockets of pine
Surrounded dead pines
Fallen staggering dry and gray
Awaiting a flame to burn them all
But not today
July 3
2026
Maybe some day
Maybe the 4th of July
Montauk is safe
No pines in the marshes
No pines in the Hither Hills
No pines in Montauk
Only before the Stretch
The Stretch is the only route
Out of Montauk
Other than the sea
And not all of us possess a boat
We ain't going anywhere, but here __

Thanks for your support. In order to avoid ads, please donate to blogger.com.mangozeen through Venmo. Any amount will help us. I do have a large family. My Venmo account is @Peter.Smith.18

Much more to come__

The Weight Of Spring

The winter of 2025-2026 was long and hard. The cold weather gathered strength in November adn throughout the next months blizards, ice storms, and arctic temperatures seemed to be eternal. The last snow dropped in March. Late March. Spring just arrived two weeks ago in New York City. Even later in Montauk ninety miles to the east on the tip of Long Island. The dune flowers were strangers on Ditch Plains even after the April showers and May was a soaking month/ Low temepratures stalled the new season.

Last week's walk through the Shagmoor bluffs revealed frost-shattered trees and snow-trampled thorn tickets attested to the previous seasons toll on nature. A single bee zigzagged through the bushes seeking nectar for a sleeping hive. only buttercup rose along the path too sour for the bee.

My legs were stiff after a sedentary winter. I vowed to walk more At the top of the bluff I stood looking out to the Atlantic. Two trawlers moored east heading to harbor. I was due to work at the jewelry store. I rather stay here. Doing nothing. Not possible. I turned my back and returned to Montauk. The last eastern town on Long Island.

Blackout – Montauk # 37 - 202

Late November
Two hours past sunset
Ditch Plains
Montauk
Walking from a Joel’s house party
A black out
Power down
All lights out
Cold
No man light at all___
The stars above illuminate the Shagmoor bluff
30 degrees cold
A slight wind through the trees
THe rustle of bare branches
To the south below the bluff
Waves crash on the beach___
Overhead the Orion Nebula
1344 light years distance
From Earth___
My boots crunch on the path
Eyes adjust to starlight
Deers sneak through the undergrowth
Silent
Orion rising over the eastern horizon
Once I knew the names of the stars
I’ve been lost in too many cities
I've spent too many years in cities of bright lights

Blinded by the lights at night
I have lost my way
Through the stars
I am not a spaceman
But once I came close___
Summer 1962
A suburb south of Boston
A ten year-old boy
Behind a split-level ranch house
Painted pink
Past midnight
My family deep asleep
Every house in the neighborhood asleep
Dead quiet___
Out onto the back lawn
Naked
I lay on cut grass
Eyes straight up to the eternal night sky
Staring Bbeyond the bats
Hunting not orbiting Soviet satellites
But UFOs
Waiting for Aliens to abduct a naked boy
Ready
Willing
Able
To escape Earth and roam to the stars
With aliens from Space
To leave behind my shitty suburb
Forever
To wander the galaxy
With Aliens
As an Alien to all of them__
They never came that night or any night
And I cursed the stars and the suburbs and ET
Why didn’t you take me?
I want leave home____
To voyage to Orion and Betelgeuse and Rigel
The Brightest stars amongst countless stars overhead
Ah, the Cosmos___
Tonight in Montauk andlike then
I am alone
No UFOs
Only jets from JFK Europe Bound
West of Montauk
No extraterrestrials in the sky
Only millions of stars in a blackout
Boots crunch on the dirt
Waves crash on the beach
And___
Orion rules the stars
Partnered with Gemini and Taurus
In the winter sky
I’m happy to be here
Ditch Plains
On a path lit by starlight
Stuck on Earth
Ablue bright orb
In the quiet of Space
And south of me
The waves crash on the beach___

The State of the Pine Barrens

After leaving Amagansett station the Montauk train picks up speed through the Stretch, a narrow isthmus of the Pine Barrens. These yellow pines have existed forever in the minds of generations of those living or visiting The End. No more. An invasion of pine beetles have ravaged the trees as they have across North America. There was no defense. No clear cutting or insecticide delayed the sap ravagers. The pines are either dead or dying. Their dessicated trunks toppling to the forest floor, a serious fire danger. For now I stare out the trrain's window at the bleskness of an apocalypse, however the local teachers have told their young students that the seedlings are safe from the invasive species and years from now the Pine Barrens shall rise again. Time will tell.

Black Friday Plus One

On Black Friday November 28, 2025. I awoke at 5:55am. My alarm went off at 6am. I rose from bed and shower, then packed my bag to catch the 7:38 Montauk train. The sun had yet to rise over Brooklyn. Thirty minutes passed fast. I was ready to go. Not quite. I couldn't find my phone. I was alone. No one to help me find it. I have a favorite adage.

"You can never find something, if you are looking for it."

I couldn't find my phone. It was here. Someplace and the clock on the wall was ticking. No logner 6:30, but 6:41. The Atlantic Terminal was a twenty-three minute walk over Front Greene Park. I heard a ring. My phone was under a stack of photos. I stuck it in my pocket and ran downstairs. 6:51am. The B54 hauled into the station and I rode it down Myrtle Avenue to the Brooklyn Hospital. 7:01am. I double marched to the terminal. Ten paces at a run. Twenty paces at a fast walk. 7:29.

At Ali's coffee stand I spent $5 for a coffee, buttered bagel, and bottle of water. The first money spent on Black Friday. Downstairs at the LIRR ticket booth I give Jessie cash for a one-way ticket to Montauk. $15.75 with the senior discount. A sunny three-hour ride to Montauk. ETA 10:58 ETA. Richie Boy drives me to the store at 771 Montauk Highway. I get us coffees at Something Good, which we call something expensive. $10 cash for two small cups. Lunch $8 for a slice and a can of Root Beer. Cash.

And that completed my spending for Black Friday. The kickoff day for the Christmas consumer frenzy of gluttony inspired by the feeding fest of Thanksgiving.. Nothing bought from the Amazon, no visit to the mall, no use of the ATM card, nothing purchased other than food and travel.

Not so my fellow countrymen who topped 2024's Black Friday spending by 9% with a total of $11.8 billion. According to AI More than 87.3 million people shopped online in the U.S., while 81.7 million shopped in physical stores or almost 50% of the US population found themselves glutting on widescreen TVs, slave-made sneakers, clothing and corporate items, although part of the increase can be attributed to 47's tarriffs on foreign imports and the increase in inflation due to his economic chaos, even worst was poeple recognition that there wasn't anyting new to buy. Just the same old same old. Still they loyally reacted to the constant barrage to buy from the TV ads like sheep led to the slaughter.

Americans will spend an average of $274 this holiday season. I will spend more, but not in the USA. My family is in Thailand. I will sent them $$$. The can spend it as they want. It is the season of cheer.

ps my total expenditures for Black Friday amounted to $23. It was best I could not do on Black Friday 2025. Always the beach bum.

Whipped by Wind - Montauk

last night
late october
summer gone gone gone nearing midnight
a sudden storm swarms over Ditch Plains
from the east
from the wild Atlantic
heavy rain, gale winds, a drop in temperature
no warning__
I never check the weather
other than to watch the sky
the storm gathers strength
heavy rain pounds my tent
in the backyard of the beach cottage
on Ditch Plains Road
winds buckle the inflatable support
the lines holding firm
the tent not flying away
like Dorothy's house in THE WIZARD OF OZ
Montauk is not Kansas
And I'm not Dorothy__
I sleep through most of the storm
wake in the morning sunny sky the wind carries the sound of waves breaking on the beach
Wind buffets the tent
I hammer the unearthed pegs
back into the ground
retie the loose lines__
quarter to eight in the backyard
drinking coffee solo
next a plunge in the ocean
go work at 10:30
coming back to Brooklyn tonight
On a slow train__ leaving
The life of a beach bum

Walking In The Dark - Montauk

Nights out in Montauk I go to bed early in a tent. A good tent. Fall asleep fast. Listening to the wind and waves. Funny being outside. In the darkness. Normally very peaceful and not too cold undrr my blanket.

This morning an October storm arrived before the rains. The tent flapping like a loose sail with the wind.

Even in the darkness of night I feel nature. The colding night. My fingertips a little chilled. I fall asleep. The rain has stopped. Waking to relieve myself under the stars. No other humans other than the occasional passing car.

Last night at a party a British woman said she walked six miles in 75 minutes every day. No one believed her. I took her back. i walk a lot. Not that fast and I said it was possible. Not by me. Before I left the party I told the woman I was walking back to Ditch Plains.

"Just be be with the darkness."

I strolled back to Ditch Plains like an old hobo. Detached from the modern world which is nothing like the Jam's THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD. Cars on the road. Headlights in my eyes.

Why are they so bright in this modern world?

Drivers aren't used to a man on the shoulder of the road. They must wonder who the fuck is that? Just some weird old man. I walk facing the traffic. A car stops. I thought it might be the 12. Just someone turning around.

Then it was dark again.

A few stars.

Storm a coming.

I Blew The Shofar

Several years ago I was out in Montauk with Richie Boy. The summer rental of his shack had finished the previous Sunday and his beach house was his again. We worked around his cottage in the morning and played with his twins, then hit Ditch Plains at noon. The waves were ankle-high, but the surfers in the water discussed the upcoming swell on Wednesday.

"There's a hurricane out there." Richie eyed the ocean.

"Potentially the biggest waves of the season." Another surfer said sitting on his board..

"I'm taking off the week for Rosh Hashanah."

Nobody argued with Richie's choice. He was almost a local. We spent another hour at the Ditch Plains break, then returned to his shack for a BBQ.

Later I caught the last train to New York and slept in my own bed.

This morning I woke up thinking that today was the High Holy Day of Awe and said as much to AP, my landlord..

"No, it's next Wednesday," AP told me.

"I blew it."

"Better than blowing the chauffeur."

I made a mistake, but what can you expect from a goy?

ps the ocean was flat last weekend, but lovely all the same.

Sleeping In A Tent

I sleep in a tent
Alone
On a beach
The rain
Sounds different on canvas
Less muted than on a roof
Comforting
That I don't have to go outside
Wet and alone in the dark
I know those friends well
Always faithful
Throw in a little cold
Ah misery
The most faithful of friends
But not tonight
I am in a tent
Under a duvet
Warm and dry
More apart than alone
Knowing friends and family are out there
Safe from the storm___”

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.

Wade In the Water

Ditch Plains Late friday night

I waddled into the water. Lasted a minute.

Water temp 43. Five Februarys ago my friend Quinton and I plunged off Peakes Island Maine. Water temp 39. Last fifteen seconds. Quinton longer. His dog Penny stood on his pebbles. Her tail shaking in disbelief. Will I try today. Maybe. The key to triumph is in the first syllable. That came from an old Salada tea bag. It's early morning. After a cup of tea I'll bike down with a towel.

Young Girls Dance Forever

I'm out to Montauk this weekend, basically until the end of the summer with potential ventures afar to Europe, Africa, and the Orient.

Billie says the young people, ie Gwen his daughter and her beau are due tomorrow. Coming in for LA to be New York artists. They are renting a apartment on on Dean Street from my friend, Adrian Dannett. The previous inhabitant had been Duncan Hannah, an iconic painter, who's career was diminished by Glenn O'Brien 1984 critique of his friend's painting, "He's the Henry Mancini of the New Wave."

Duncan and I were friendly. He celebrated my 60th Birthday with Lisa Rosen at the Oyster Bar. I drank for both of them. We were born the same year. I was surprised that I outlived him, since he had foregone alcohol in 1980. I drank myself to death in 2021. Somehow I survived.

Here's a poem dedicated to Duncan Hannah. He was a dear man.

Young Girls Dance Forever

Sunset on Montauk bluffs
Three teenage girls
Dancing Singing
Atop a tumbling bluff
Above the Atlantic
Dancing to Miley Cyrus' FLOWERS
No cellphone
No music 'cept in their heads
The words
Lost on the breeze
But I know the lyrics
And I sing along. In silence___
I've seen the three before
Yesterday's sunset
Girls Dancing with boys
Not there
Dancing in the cool
Of a late summer afternoon Atop a Montauk bluff
The sun burning low In the West
August ending soon__
Not for these girls
Forever veterans of summer
Knowing all the words
To the songs
All the moves to the dance
All the secret shared stories
Not waiting the future
Now forever young
Dreaming Summer Dreams___
Young girls Dance
Forever
On the bluff
Young girls
Clap your hands
Over the sea
Young girls so young
Young girls
At the sunset
Dance forever
With summer almost gone___

ps Glenn O'Brien once said abotu me before his demise, "Here's a true adventurer."

I was never sure if that was a good thing.

Blackout - Montauk # 37

Two hours past sunset
Ditch Plains
Montauk
Black out
Power down
Lights out
All lights out
No man light at all___
The above stars
Light the path through the Shagmoor
Cold 30 degrees cold
No wind
Through the trees
To the south
Below the bluff
Waves crashing on the beach___
No lights on the bluffs
Overhead
The Orion Nebula
1344 light years distance
From Earth___
Tonight
Boots crunch on the dark path
Eyes adjust to starlight
Deers sneak through the undergrowth
Silent
Orion rising over the eastern horizon
Once I knew the names of the stars
I've been lost in too many cities
Too many bright lights
Too many years of bright lights
I have lost my way
Through the stars I am not a spaceman
But I once came close___
Summer 1962
A suburb
South of Boston
I a ten year-old boy
Leave our split-level ranchhouse
Past midnight
My family deep asleep
Every house dark
Dead quiet
Out onto the back lawn
I lay on cut grass
Eyes straight up
Into the deep night sky
Beyond the bats
I
Hunting not for Soviet satellites
But a UFO
Waiting for the Aliens
To abduct me
I was ready
Willing
Able
To go to the stars
With strangers from Space
Leave behind this shitty suburb
Forever
To wander the galaxy
With Aliens
As an Alien to all of them__
They never came for me
And I cursed the stars
And the suburbs
And ET
Why didnt you take me?
I wanted to leave home____
To go to Orion
With Betelguese and Rigel
The Brightest stars
Amongst
Thousands of other stars
Ah, the Cosmos___
Tonight in Montauk like then
I am alone
No UFOs
Only jets bound to JFK
West of Montauk
No extraterrestrials in the sky
Only millions of stars in a blackout
My boots crunch on the dirt
Waves crash on the beach
And___
Orion rules the stars
Partnered with Gemini and Taurus
In the winter sky
I'm happy to be here
Ditch Plains
On a path lit by starlight
My fingers getting cold
Me stuck on Earth
The blue bright orb
In the quiet of Space
And south of me
The waves crashing on the beach___

Montauk # 32

Atop Montauk bluff
No weekend walkers on the trail yet
Sit on a wooden rail
Sun on my face
The wind buffeting my ears
Also the sound of waves___
Overhead
An eastbound jet
Destination
Europe
345 passengers
A crew of 23
I alone
With the wind, the sun, and my fingers
Slightly chilled by the cold
Winter more than a month away
On a sunny November morn___
With no humans in sight

Montauk Train # 19

Amagansett
Empty golf course
FourteenPile Of Stones minutes
From Montauk___
I have never played golf
Pitch and Putt
Once in Queen's Park
London
Back in the last century
With friends
Nina, Ingi and others
The Persian, Maid Marion, Frank, maybe Fingers
Maybe others___
A beautiful September afternoon
Queen's Park
Who won
No one cared
No one counted the score___

Kids licking ice cream
Softies
Exit the Park
Passing George Orwell's house
Thirteen Years past 1984
Remember it like thirteen years ago
Especially the ice cream
Dripping on the Kids hands___
Now
The Montauk train pulling into the station
Five minutes late___

Montauk Train # 7

An hour after the Dawn
An eastbound diesel train
The 8:18 to Montauk
Top speed
60 mph
Fifteen minutes
Out of Jamaica___

Sun climbs the sky
Approaching Babylon

A swimming pool
Empty
Until
A winter blizzard buries Long Island___

And the snow melts
Fills the pool
To the brim___

Two months
Ahead
Of today
A White Christmas
Wintah 2024___

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___

Montauk # 27

An Autumn Afternoon
Sitting on a bench
A simple pleasure
Watching seagulls
Not gliding
No wind
Wings beating
Away from the Atlantic
Montauk Lake bound
Free
As am I
An old hippie hobo
Lost on the wind___

According to the Easthampton Star between the Shinnecock Inlet and Montauk Point, there's a chance to see the Bonaparte's gull, Iceland gull, glaucous gull, lesser black-backed gull, and even black-headed gull. I only spot the herring gull, which dine on fluke and sea bass, but also shellfish and smaller birds. When the whales are breaching in their fishing herds, the gulls peck at the whales, fearlessly snacking on the large sea mammals. They gather in groups, very protective of their space. I always approach them at an angle, yet they are aware of mt presence. Clever are the gulls. Also monogamous.

"As I watched the seagulls, I thought, That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust." - Nikos Kazantzakis