A Walk on the Beach By Mike Dilts  In Memory of Malka Kutik Dilts  The idiot ocean slobbers filth Over dead-white gums of sand Brutish skies pound the waves With swollen, flailing ignorance On the beach a sun-scoured bone Dissolves from chip to powder Like a hundred-year whisper Shattered shells cup no more songs A headless gull spreads its wings In noble self-submission Heart-cage picked clean of life A plaything tossed aside by the elements The universe has no mind We make our humble offering In return we are crushed into the slime Hands which were empty now are broken Despair in its purity Tastes of gray saltwater A breath of winter fog Drawn sharp through clenched teeth On the beach the air is haunted By scaly signs, gelatinous excretions By the last screams of the dying crabs By the funereal chorus of kelp-eating flies The sea chants its inevitable dirge With the rhythm of an asthmatic’s cough As the stolid shore piles high With the waste of two worlds No footprint remains before or behind Sand and salt have no memory We have entrusted her name to the blind illiterate wind She who was taken and given at the same moment

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