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Sharon Dean

The Basking Beach

autumn sun
a speedboat drifts
at anchor in the bay

Thinking of last night. A bedroom. Shadowy and dark. Pale light filtering in from the street.
Now, this white expanse of sand. Bright and hot.

sea murmurs
a yellow bikini
on the rock wall

I'd come to him naked. His body: hard angles and soft determination.
Fish scales glint on black rocks. Sea-sucking holes for the crabs.

red goggles high
on the bald man's head
breaststroke

"You're gorgeous," is what he'd said. In the manner of a night sky filled with stars. Comets.
Grains of sand fall between my fingers, drop back to the beach, disappear. A fat man walks by, dives into the water.

black speedos
he swims out to sea
in his socks

Tangled sheets. Our one-night leap into an abyss. A biting into a juicy-fresh peach at the height of summer.

Mr. Speedos hauls himself over the side of the boat ... reappears with fishing rod and beer.

ebb tide
a young woman plays
in the waves