From The Beekeeper's Daughter

Tidal Bells

Awash, rising from you
like a grouty sea lion,
my whiskers askew with kelp.
In my hair and yours, sea grit,
our fingers salt riffed and foamed.

Shells in the slow tumble
from the westward current.
The spill of liquid sand,
whiffs of us.

Like those bright glass bulbs
loosened from the Japanese fishing nets.
Those clapperless tidal bells
tinking in the upcurl of waves,
lapping, just lapping like our tongues.



©Bruce Hunter, 1986 -- unauthorized duplication prohibited