Title: Sunrise Over Florida
Fandom: due South
Rating: G
Length: 189
Summary: Ray Vecchio, walking on the beach at sunrise.

Author's Notes: Freestyle poem. Prompts: Elusive/Ephemeral


A lemon sky opens to the day.
The sun rises
With a shout;
Claps its hands
And rolls over the waves.

Light creeps across
The sullen ocean,
And you bury your toes
In the sand.
Wine dark purple
Becomes dazzle gold,
Then settles into blue –
A thousand blues, and greens, and silvers.

Soon the small children
Will run with their buckets
To play on the beach.

Already in the sky
Gulls wheel
And cry out
Their sharp hunger.
The waves lick
Your feet
Like a lover’s kiss.

The petrels will not come,
So far inland. Not today.
All such storms are very far away.

You ran forever
From the desert,
Forever to find
This water,
This sand that isn’t dry,
To find a sun that doesn’t beat
On bones in the wilderness.

You ran, but didn’t run
Nearly far enough.
The bones follow,
The bleached skulls grin.
Them dry bones
With stridulent whispers
Gonna walk, and walk around.

Perhaps for a day
There will be peace,
And the bones silent –
Please.
Transience, an illusion of joy,
Till the night comes.

But the sun still rises
On the honey beach.