August 2018
I am originally from northern California, I spent much time on its cold, rocky coast in my youth. Some years ago however, my wife and I relocated to Virginia, and my four children have only ever known the beaches of the east coast. This sonnet is about the joys those shores have brought to my oldest daughter.
Beach Daughter
The waves are flowing softly over sands
in rhythmic pulses with a gentle roar
to make a game of jump rope on the shore.
She leaps over the surf and splashing, lands
both feet within the tide and reaches hands
to gather up the shells among the floor
of swirling sand and briny sea that pours
across the smoothly polished stones in strands.
If it was up to her she’d never leave,
she’d build a castle out of sand and stay
within its walls, within its soft reprieve
from all the noise and lights that fill the day.
For here upon the beach her lungs can breathe,
and roaring waves sweep all the world away.
© 2018 Theodore Goodwin
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