Sandals
By Roger Sippl
The sandals aren’t lined up
off to the side of the sand trail
that leads past the parking lot’s ice cream truck
to the open sand at Scott Cameron Beach.
But they aren’t randomly scattered either.
They are in pairs, of course, pairs.
The two-footed beach-goers have taken them off
to feel their toes in the sand for this part of the day.
The sandals are at the beach, together,
of course, together, and they are grouped
because the young children’s sandals are near
those of their parents, so the children can find them again
when they are ready to go back to the house
and play some more with their older cousins
and their brother. Grandma’s sandals are there too,
keeping a watchful eye on them all.
Roger Sippl studied creative writing at the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Berkeley (under Thom Gunn) and at Stanford Continuing Studies. He has published poetry in the Ocean State Review, Open Thought Vortex, Her Heart Poetry, Bacopa Literary Review, The Write Launch, Alternating Currents, Sediments Literary-Arts Journal, Smeuse Poetry, Poker Brat, Snapdragon, Wising Up Press, Medussa’s Laugh and two medical journals, JAMA Oncology and CHEST.
He has written his first novel, which is in revision. While a student at UC Berkeley in the 1970’s, Sippl was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which was treated aggressively with surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, allowing him to live relapse-free to this day.
