The title is from an album by the Delays, the poetry is of things that really happened, and the photography is from a trip I took last Saturday to Monday at Club Med - Ria Bintan, one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

-Kel, Aria, etc


--


we
went on to the beach and the waves were
clear green light
and elusive,
   cursive white

i
pushed my head into the sand
and
came away with sand in
the backs of my ears
and the linings of my thighs.

i pushed past the
girls in bikinis and the windsurfing boats,
the margaritas left steaming in the sun;
went behind the rocks and discovered pale pale beach
white and green, and
nothing written on it

so i chased crabs
and wrote poetry in the sand with a seashell
             "the waves have pushed helpless fish at my feet
             eager and earnest
             to please"
and a small boy came with his father and scrambled over the words
and read them out loud; and i
        didn't have to
        help him with them

the water was roping my feet
so i took off my slippers
and put them in one hand, to keep them safe
        from the sea. i breathed
light in through my nose, and the
lengths of indecisive shadows, let them
        leak out of my eyes

small fish flickered around my fingers, and
i tried to decide if i should collect seashells,
then decided they were better left there
for someone else
to find.