bluebells and purple wisteria framing
my view of a passive Pacific
from gentrified Carmel beach.
Soothing cobalt, aqua and crisp
alexandrite tidal waters squiggle
in milky ocean foam.
Life’s broad swelter lionized:
hours torqued, smelted heart,
sulfur eyes.
I’m genuinely tempted to assimilate
this craggy bay beside a bigger bay
despite no clue of local legends
snow white Doris Day
or hair-trigger Eastwood flaunting
his infamous deadly Magnum.
In the distance to my right
a peninsula on which Spyglass Hill
golf course lances and spits,
salamander aflame.
And off to my immediate left
that wily promontory Point Lobos
watches Lilith list amongst
a throng of sail boats.
[+]
Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California
State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry and interviews have a
ppeared in Nimrod, Portland Review, Kestrel, Cream
City Review, Poetry Salzburg, Boston Poetry Magazine,
Gertrude, The Bacon Review, and many others. He has
published a travel guide, Best Choices In Northern
California, and Time Lines, a book of poems. He lives
in Marina, California.
