• Copper blood spills onto peach
    sand, cradling decay
    and planting it upon the shore.
    The watercolor sky fades
    to a shining sun, disguising the demolition
    of life below.

    I halt beside a wooden pier.
    Slimy sand sticks to my bare
    feet, the rocks serving
    as a staircase to a perishing path.

    A putrid wind lashes
    me, forcing a wheeze as I sift
    through the graveyard of a hundred fish
    while the rotting stench swathes
    my throat, choking me.

    My eyes blur and through a glassy gaze
    I spy a mackerel, imaging its last
    seconds of insanity before turning belly up
    as millions of mini marauders flood
    its thoughts.

    A gull lunges toward it, waddling
    closer then tearing
    a strip of flesh and guzzling it down.
    A chiming chorus of squawks
    circles the sky, a halo
    marking free food.

    At my mother’s summons
    I stagger back, clawing
    up slimy stones
    to arrive at black pavement
    shining with reflected rainbows,
    as the midday sun bounces
    off the hoods of parked cars.