POETRY

Gulfport, MS

The gulf is dark, calm, forming pools
in shallow sand as water pulls away —
it’s slipping silent from my feet. Sand scampers
across them. I thought the tide would be high
on a full moon. Jellyfish, long and blue, red, oval,
with tiny tentacles caressing water by, move
slow by my feet. I can easily step away.
Black skimmers — long red bottom bill
that breaks the water’s surface, scooping fish
with its black tip — glide silently across the sea,
unseen until only a few feet away. Everything here
is unexpected, not at all how I thought it would be —
the moon, the birds, the sea — and…