Tag Archives: hike

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apparition

We are fishing and playing a little and then we hear something. I stick my head up. Dad does too, and my sisters. What is it? It is making noises! There, on the beach. Something roaring in two tones!

There are two. The smaller one is doing most of the roaring. It is weird. Two tones, a low growly one and a higher one that sings.

It is creepy, that smaller one. I think it sees us. It has a mechanical eye. Dad says, “Dive.” We talk under water. Maybe it is trying to steal our souls or lure us to death on the beach.

We do have to come up for air though. Now they both roar. Dad barks: “STOP” and what do the horrors do? They try to imitate him! Are they making fun of him?

Now the smaller one is just making high song noises. Sort of like a creepy bird. It keeps going back to the double growl, though.

Dad says, “Come on.” We dive and head the other way along the beach. The appartitions are picking up things from the beach. I am very glad they didn’t get us. This time.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: apparition.

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we would have seen

Yesterday Rialto Beach was blocked off.

The forest service blocked it off because of the bomb cyclone. The winds are driving the waves way up the beach. The dead trees get thown around like tinker toys.

We would have seen how high the water had come if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

We would have seen the corpse of a seal, washed up on the beach, if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

We would have seen a soaking wet life jacket, just there on the beach, my size, if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

We would have had to walk in over a mile and back, if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

We would have wondered if the life jacket fell off a boat and we would have been glad not to find a body, if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

We would have met a couple who said that they only got to the viewpoint and were chased back by a Forest Service worker on a bicycle, if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

We would have seen the confluence of the four rivers, rushing high, a seal fishing in the river and cormorants, if Rialto Beach was not blocked off.

But Realto Beach was blocked off to keep us safe. We are home and safe.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt, corpse.

The picture is not of Rialto Beach.

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harbor

sometimes when
we are alone together
and just talking
wandering from topic to topic

and you say I always disagree
and I say …(I don’t say no I don’t)
and I say I like to think about things
from all sides

and you listen some too

sometimes when
we are alone together
and just talking

it is as if we have reached a harbor
and feel at home

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grounded

Poem: grounded

grief is an ox
that stands in the room with me
and overshadows
everything

no
grief
is a plow
pulled by an ox
I try to guide it
in the furrows

no
grief is the heavy ground
the plow turns it
the ox pulls
I guide it
in the furrows

no
I am grieving
I let it be close
I don’t push it
in to an ox
in to a plow
in to the earth
I let it in
I grieve