Tide (2022 Hour 1)

We spent too much time
Sitting on the beach
Soaking in the sun
Sprayed by salt
As the waves licked the shore
More a bay than an ocean
Large enough for the tides
To be controlled by the moon
And swept by the wind
The water ripped back
As it needed some place to go
The seagulls dove
Picked the clams
And dropped them onto the mud
Hoping to crack them open
A few blocks from the beach
The heat overwhelmed
Here the sea breeze
Cooled us
We didn’t have
An air conditioner in our apartment
So we borrowed the breeze from the sea
More a bay than a sea
Yet large enough
For the moon to control the tides
And the wind to blow the salt
And the sun to evaporate the water
I turned to my side
And asked you
If you wanted to join me for a swim
We both swam very well
Those days
When our apartment
Had no air conditioning
And we used the sea breeze
To cool us
And we used the sun to warm us
The sound of the white noise of the waves
Drowned out the random sounds around us
It didn’t matter how crowded it was
We could hold unto each other
As the sun set