sketches for a story

the baby kicks
i wake up
your hand wrapped protectively around my belly
he is a morning person already
and is ready already for the morning beach walk
and if you live by the beach
you really ought to do sunrise and sunset whenever you can

i do not disapprove
i just think it's funny
my mother always said:
you'll grow up and have one just like you
and i counted on it, ya know
but she was wrong about that too
the little alien spawn is already a morning person

i try to slide out of bed without waking you
but it only kind of half works
so i kiss you and tell you to go back to sleep:
we'll do sunset if you can


ok kiddo it's just you and me
what's on your mind
swish
no way
that water is cold
later when the sun is up i'll brave it for you
what else ya got
images of warm sea water experiences rise up to greet me
different ocean though puppy
this is the left coast in the northern hemisphere
those are always cold
and even if we were at the same place
i wouldn't take you in now
it's too polluted now

you're already swimming
just feel the ocean

can you smell the salt
that salt air is one of my most favorite things on earth
i used to work close to the coast
and i would take out the trash every chance i got
just to take the long walk around the building and smell the sea

kick

the sky is rosy glowing
the water is lapping along the sand
and i've got a puppy fish skipping along with me

hey puppy fish
it'll be a while before you can do this yourself
i'm doing my best for ya here
arms akimbo head thrown back
i look at the sunrise
i look at the sea
imprinting each with as much clarity as i can
i dig my feet into the half dry sand
then i walk into the surf line
i stand
i let my feet sink into the sand
wiggle them
feel the quick-sand-y-ness

when i was eight, puppy fish
i went to a beach where the artists lived
down where the water is warm, as you noted
and when the water splashed up on the shore
when it rolled back
you could see air bubbles coming to the surface
a lot like when you cook pancakes
we'll have to side-bar pancakes for right now
and when i dug down
there were little quahogs
i woulda called em clams
quahogs i think of as the things you buy on the ferry in new england like you'd buy hotdogs
these were so tiny though and black or blue beautiful
when i dug em up and set em on the sand
they seemed to dig their way back in before my eyes
i'm not sure how now but that's the truth of it

i pull my feet from the unstable swallowing mass
and dance into the surf
we're near the pier now and the surf is louder
as it smashes against the pilings

let's go up to the plaza, puppyfish
there's mica in the plaza and it sparkles
the first time i saw it it reminded me of somewhere
somewhere i saw when i was a kid and i thought it must be diamonds
lets look at it sparkle in the morning sun and do you think we should get your daddy a fancy coffee before we head back, hmmmm, whatdaya think
and maybe i'm biasing you unfairly towards daddy
maybe papa would be better, huh, like hemingway
i was just thinking i'd like to call him daddy-o
but i got a thing for the beats
wait...wait....look isn't it beautiful puppyfish

now let's get papa his fancy coffee, um, yeah well
let's see if they have cubanos
probably not but we'll see
and then we gotta get back
or else maybe he'll think you swam away