August Perseids

August Perseids

Lodge pole pines feather the still sapphire sky

Waves of red-pink beach roses

tumble down the path to the bay

Sand crinkles through our toes

Bats swoop, skimming mosquitoes

Sunset is painting the sky lavender, red

and orange

Water colors drifting into the sea

We hold tight

to our strawberry cones

catch drips with our tongues

The now cold tide foams around our ankles

Our beach fire crackles

Tomorrow

the gray seals will bob up from the surf

watch us with dark sea dream eyes

Scatter when we dive off the boat

Later

a gleaming steely shadow

will glide in our slipstream

The great white shark

will thrill us

Will take the measure of our craft

Tonight

our beach fire turns to embers

A meteor blazes across the sky

We lie back on the chilling sand

Enchanted

The Perseids are showering us with sprays of light

But by September you lie in the cemetery on the bluff

under the soughing pines

Flanked by sea captains  

Whalers and rovers

their headstones gently eroding

Stone angels now faceless

In May I return to our beach

Now furrowed and winnowed

Wracked by nor’easters

A gray seal bobs near the shore

Sleek and shining

Dark eyes curious

I lie in the heat of a sheltered dune

Not yet ready to swim

Elizabeth Fletcher

Elizabeth Fletcher’s poems have appeared in The Schuylkill Valley Journal, The Scarlet Leaf Review, the anthology Lost Orchard, and the Plum Tree Tavern. Several of her nature essays have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer. She has a BA from Hamilton College, and  an MS in Technical Communication from Drexel University. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania