EASTHAM

Here on the outer Cape
near the last windmill
are scrub pine and sand bars
near tide pools we walked
in ankle-deep warm water,
and found horseshoe crabs,
moon snails, razor clams,
and tangled knots of seaweed.
This is the flung-out arm
of the bay that beckoned
the hungry pilgrims and Nauset
in their first encounter,
where both, surprised,
ran off, over round stones
rubbed smooth by tides.
The gray heavens or clouded
blue air fills with low
flotillas of observant gulls,
as if visiting ghosts
from some invisible realm.
Here understanding grows
and stuttering love
outlasts the soon altered.
In each summer season
mourning doves croon
love from the few trees
with hours wearing away
where we have sat still,
here with the world’s weight
as night comes too soon.

*

Royal Rhodes is a poet who lives in retirement in rural Ohio. His poems have appeared in: ONE ART, Last Stanza, Amethyst, Ekphrastic Review, The Montreal Review, and others. His poem, “Solstice”, was issued as a poetry and art collaboration broadsheet by The Catbird [on the Yadkin] Press in North Carolina.