evening crawled over me

a feely breeze

a floe of honey    an amber embrace

                                                

                                                   every thing   tinged

distinct     and separate     

         warmly     and gloriously magnified

a stalwart black seawall stands sentry   vigilant   grown from the seas belly it

shatters tall waves or strokes its feal undulating surf

crabs scour its stones

and seaweed on its knees thread wreaths bejeweled by anemone fishbones and 

spiny urchins

I watched a thankless man    phosphorescent with sunset    gulp spirits from a 

narrow uptilted glass bottle    like a spike of lightning  

                                                                                    

                                                                              stumble on the slick embarcadero   

catch himself with his knee and hand   and then rise  fumble with his fly  and 

lavishly urinate into the saltwater

                            

                                   mocking gulls circled and cried overhead

                                                                                             

                                                                                     I had hoped one would swoop  

and emasculate him

(but that would have to be for some other poem)

he staggered backward   staggered   then fell hard on his ass 

                                                                                                

                                                                                                  the stones unforgiving  

and yet unfinished   his pantlegs blotted the remainder of his besotted stream

he laid on his back trying to curse 

but mewled

and then a huge wave shattered over him like a heap of broken glass 

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                the sea returning to him

what was his

the sky roiled black

the seawall merged

the man disappeared

                                           

                                           and in the hills from where I had descended to the harbor

small lights blinkered and

what I thought was a seduction of fireflies

                                                                        

                                                                      were families to their dinners or books or

conversations

I could scarcely wait to return to tell my story

the night took me by the hand and walked me through the stone paved streets to the

path that ascended into the farming hills and crisscrossed the dirt road

                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                   I was happy 

one of us

                 

                  knew the way

0015,  Friday,  12  7. 13