Thursday, September 03, 2009

Bethany Beach

Delaware's not so bad. I've been sponging off of Sarah's friends since I haven't been back in Philly long enough to form my own bonds. Thanks to that, I got to go to a beach in Delaware and experience this:

Angled bridge

Lit like a spotlight onstage

by fluourescent white lights swarming with flies.


On either side, wild grasses grew

from white sands.


Lit unnaturally

by white fluourescent lamps

I tread the angled bridge in flat silver shoes,

stopped.

& lost my breath, my eyes grew wide.


Never have I seen 

such blackness staring me down.


It stretched across the dimensions

ready to swallow me whole

into its deep, dark, infinite abyss


Empty space, 

neglected by the Creator of things


I tread the length of the angled bridge

approaching the abyss.


Kicked off the silver shoes

and walked straight into the abyss.


I was not afraid. I knew the nothingness

was only an illusion. 


Things were there, should light be cast on them.

Just now, the light was fast asleep.


As all should be, 

but not were we.


Bare feet

Soft sands beneath the toes, 

Grains between the toes


We paused at the edge of the dry sands

& the beginning of the wet sands


From here, the abyss

was no longer empty.

We heard the woosh and crash of 

the surf against the shore


It thrilled me! Electrified me!

Leaving the others behind, my bare feet took off running down the wet sands

Hands flurried to strip off the remaining flowing garments

Tumbled playfully in the sands along the way

and dove into the abyss


Cold, black Atlantic! 

Pale bodies floating in a sea of tar

Above us another sea of tar

speckled with stars, 

no moon 

only Venus and Mars


I try to surf with the tide incoming

Massive, mammoth monster rising

But black force pounds my face and engulfs all my senses drowning


My sight is struck with stars

Thunder crashes around my ears

I lose all sense of when or where

As ruthless waves toss me hither and there

My clothes are ripped askew

All I can do is gasp and sputter

and crawl on my knees,

dragging my self, beaten and stripped, to the kinder shore.

Woah, rush! Again and again, over and under,

I battle with the tides over and over

What a rush, What a rush, the need to suffer...and fight and conquer


Back to shore I drag my self 

through the heavy molasses I drag my self


Bare feet back on solid sand 

and light and slender air

I become a spectator as others battle

their own tempestuous waves


On this planet, I see

no colors but black and white

Black sea, white crests

Black sky, white sands

Pale luminous torsos glow

like stars fallen into the jet-black flow


Crests race in from sea to shore like 

white stallions in battle form

Two front lines charge toward the shore 

Diagonal lines close in and roar

Clash and explode.

Another races from side to side

I watch, hypnotized.


I think we are standing at the edge 

of a strange planet

One jump will take us into deep space

off this strange planet

But I know this place, this lonely planet

And feel no desire to abandon it


Why would I want to leave?

Why would I want anything better?

We are here, and we don't know it

We are home, and we don't know it

Know it, know it, seek it, love it!


And then abandon it.

No comments: