Lots of sand (but the sea's close by) for my response to the Poetry Bus prompt here at the excellent Perfect Fourth and the Week 19 slot at One Shot Wednesday.



OLD MAN ASLEEP ON MARLOES BEACH

His body is
a grounded boat
picked clean. Beached,

naked, he breathes
the tide. Baked
dry and hard

as a starfish,
he scars
the white sand,

a blemish, or
a marker. His
skin contains him:

the curlicue
of autumn leaf,
its warp, its

tenacity. The sun
walks home across
the sand and

out to sea.
A star pins
light back

into the sky. 
A man has
become his shadow.