Glenn G. Coats
Remembrance
Manuel wears a long-sleeved white shirt. Rosa dresses in a cream-colored blouse and cardigan that falls to her knees. White curls tumble to her shoulders. Their faces are brown as the mountains.
A few hours before sunset, they drive the coastal highway in search of open sky. The clouds clear near Carmel Beach and they find a place to park. Manuel pulls off his boots and rolls up his jeans. He opens a bottle of red wine, bends to slip off Rosa’s sandals.
The sun begins to set. Dark reds, blues, and golds streak the sky. Rosa hums the old waltz and begins to practice on the sand. Cold surf washes around their feet as Manuel slowly spins Rosa in circles. The wine bottle slips from their hands, bleeds in the sea like a wounded fish. Manuel wraps an arm around Rosa, and kisses her for a long time. “Your teeth are chattering,” he says as they hold each other in the darkness.
from one sandy lane to the next tiger lilies
Glenn G. Coats lives with his wife, Joani, in Carolina Shores, North Carolina. His recent collections are Degrees of Acquaintance (Snapshot Press, 2019), a collection of haibun, and Furrows of Snow (Turtle Light Press, 2019), which won an honorable mention in the Haiku Society of America’s 2020 Merit Book Awards.