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Neighborhood Beach by Unknown
from Legacy 2008
Neighborhood Beach
by Unknown
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It is a warm day, the first in a long time.
I walk down to my small neighborhood beach.
An old gnarled tree reaches its thick fingers
across the paved road.
The shore is lined with rocks, reeds and trash.
As I stand by the rotting pier I see phantoms
from days long past:
Myself as a young girl, my hair reaching my waist,
bangs touching my eyebrows, climbing
on the rocks at the water line.
I fall and scrape my knee.
I see my sister and I playing with Barbies
and plastic ponies in the sand.
I see in a summer long past, swimming
in the brown water with a friend I ceased
talking to when I was thirteen.
I see myself as a young teen leaning
against a tree, looking at the gray water
through a blur of tears.
Today is a warm day, the first in a long time.
I walk to the beach and gaze at the glassy water
and phantoms from the days when life wasn't so complicated.
