1. A visit to the shore
I’m on the beach, tired from dogpaddling.
It’s time for a little nap.
Before dozing off, I think
Thou shalt
Thou shalt
Feel immense.
The rest of you guys can wash up on the beach
And be shells.
The best kind of shells
Whose iridescence lasts forever.
I declare.
Milestones cry,
I am no longer a young man.
I am a man.
Dayenu!
Memories curl
On my tongue.
Did I ever see a waterspout?
Ten guys marching at the water’s edge, playing tubas?
Whatever became of my sea glass collection?
I dunno.
2. Ocean Heist, New Jersey
We went to the South Shore
To steal the ocean.
We’d planned it for months
And God found it funny.
We were spotted by a lifeguard,
Of course.
The cops brought us in for questioning,
Waves lapping in our pockets.
I felt like a fool,
Sand in the crack of my ass.
Once, I was handed a lever
And told to move the world.
And I did, I budged it a little,
In my own way.
But that was a different caper.
Oh Ocean Heist!
Here girls drool
Over my six-pack.
Danny is safe and happy here.
Rachel smells of breastmilk.
Here they train porpoises
To be bus drivers for the Short Line.
Here I eat chicken parm in the Hotel Arizona.
Here I plot with Bob to make a million dollars.
Asked why I did it,
I just played dumb.
“Basically, I dunno.”
I managed to slip away
And hide under the boardwalk,
Which soon was a future boardwalk,
A raft for refugees.
It was getting late.
They warned they’d come for us
If the sea wasn’t where it was supposed to be
By sundown.
I swear we always intended
To give it back.
- New York City, 20 August 2024