Recollections on a Beach

She stood there in the
Full, blinding stare
Of the midday sun,
Shading her eyes
As light reflected off
The lightly chopping waves.

She breathed in the heavy air,
Salty as pistachios,
Letting the thickness of it
Fill her laboring lungs,
Calming her body and
Awakening her mind.

She bored her bare toes
Into the grit below,
Through the hot surface
To a strange chill beneath,
Arousing memories of a
Lost afternoon years before.

She tasted the tangy spray
That flew with the breeze,
Coating her lips, and
Sparking thirst, longing
For a glass of cold beer,
Frothing like cresting waves.

She walked across burnt sands
To a whitewashed shack,
Barely erect after years
Of battering winds, where
An old woman stood, her
Hair guarded by a net.

She gestured silently, and
Offered a bill for a bottle,
Cold and dripping as it
Emerged from the ice,
And opened it right there,
Drinking deeply, quickly.

She gulped the icy, effervescent
Liquid, bracing, stirring
Her body and mind,
As it had on that lost afternoon,
When she had wandered here
With someone unnamed, unknown.

She had met him standing
Hip deep in the salty, thick water,
Bodies bouncing with swells,
Their faces turned to the sun.
They had danced with the waves,
Not speaking, not asking.

She had grabbed his hand
To steady herself in the rush
Of a strong Caribbean wave,
Then followed him down
Beneath the surface, where
They kissed for a moment.

She had not let go of him,
As he led her out of the sea,
Onto the wet sands, across
To a shack shaded by palms,
And there, they shared a beer,
Bubbling against salty tongues.

She had walked on with him
To an even more secluded place,
Amid heavy, dark green leaves,
By a high cascade of water,
To share with that unnamed man
A lost afternoon.