Joanna Gilman Hyde

Today

I’m visiting

a new beach for me

Sand Hills

in Barrington Bay

and someone has built

a stone-lined walkway

along a sandy path

into the water —

there’s no surf here

only the steady murmur of incoming tide

over out-stretched sand

plenty wide

for hundreds of visitors —

only here on The South Shore

beaches are nearly bare

barren but for the occasional

seeker of solitude.

The families have left —

it’s supper time —

and Eye have walked out

over the flatness

having found a large quahog shell

the interior of which

holds an expanse

of mineral glaze

so much like the beach itself

it becomes my souvenir.

A family of eight

visited yesterday:

2 mothers, 2 fathers

one uncle and 3 children

and the oldest boy

aged 5

picked a selection of wildflowers:

2 daisies, 2 clovers

and one buttercup

but Eye couldn’t find my smallest vase:

pink with one china rose

so Eye used a shot glass

and placed it

upon my sink window sill

where its sweetness greeted me

today