Haystack Rock

Face down in the suntanned sand,

my long wet hair clung to my tired shoulders.

The salt of the Pacific mingled with the salt of my exhaustion;

crystalline contrast to my summer-born freckles.

I fell asleep beneath the colossi-

Basalt monolith standing proudly, under the biggest

spotlight, looming over the stage of the set

where hundreds of terns take their supporting roles.

Their screams sound like songs

sung off-key, off the coast

that I had coasted along

in the hours prior, oblivious to this hungry chorus.

I awoke from this dream

and nothing much had changed.

Except the tides, the clouds

and me.