Noon Tide
Dunnica Harps
I lay there,
burying my fingers and toes in the ooze.
The liquid sand flowed around me.
The sun beat down upon me.
My bare skin radiated the absorbed heat
and turned the shiny pink of over-exposure.
Closing my eyes, I let myself go
Melting into the beach, soft and wet.
My trance was broken by cold touching my toes
Penetrating a thick cover of ooze.
Water passed my knees
and reached my breasts
to splash in my reddened face.
Its salt left a bitter taste in my mouth
and I spat viciously and cursed Titan
for restoring my shape as he withdrew,
leaving it to harden in a mold of dense sand.
But he returned, enveloping my body,
soothing and pacifying me
with his icy fingers.
They danced lightly
on my exposed limbs and chest,
neutralizing the misplaced heat,
caressing my raw skin.
Waves played in my brown hair
lightened by the bleaching sun,
while seaweed tickled my underarms
as the waves retreated once more.
Once again the water lapped around me,
roaring in my ears,
eroding the sand from my side.
My hands now freed,
I wiped the wet overgrown clump of brown tangle
from my squinting eyes.
Saltwater slapped my face repeatedly.
I bent my knees, forming a makeshift barrier
against the foam and spray.
I turned my nose to the rotting kelp.
Realizing I had begun to slip through the sand,
as if through a cumulus cloud,
I lept up,
For fear of being buried alive,
But forgetting my feet, sunk deeply in the sand,
was pulled abruptly back
into the natural suction.
This old beach had become too quick,
and my strength had faded in the afternoon sun
as the crashing waves
drowned out the seagulls' cries.
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