A Cage To Hold My Dreams
In Mitch's Footprints
We walk across the mile-long
beach they call the Inch
and she takes off her shoes.
On dainty feet
she splashes through
the silk-soft water like a child
doing a birthday dance.
The tide is skin-flat and listless,
so flat that on it we could
lay a tablecloth of finest linen,
and sit cross-legged
in the surf, sipping tea from
paper cups and picking cakes
which ride the tide
on tiny boatlike plates.
She has the looks of someone
I could love, but not today,
not yet,
perhaps not ever,
until this rage is conquered
and the grief subsides
can such a thought
be anything but wishful.
Perhaps in time,
by loving me, she'll break
the stranglehold.
But on the strand today
none of this matters.
Nothing matters
but the bay and the gulls
and her loveliness.
She turns her face to me
and smiles, for that fleeting
moment, I'm a worthy
king in Mitch's footprints.
*Mitch is a reference to the actor
Robert Mitchum who was filmed
on these sands in Ryan's Daughter.
