After a long pause
Nose downward,
Watching waves polish
Her feet, lick at her ankles
Repeatedly, a clock’s tongue,
The background hum of sea
Echoing some famous adagio,
And my round reddening belly,
Patient as one of those
Smirking stone buddhas,
Yet desperate for her answer,
She at last mumbled,
“Maybe once in a blue moon.”

Looking back,
I don’t think she knew
The weight of that phrase,
Massive as the gravity
That yanks salty tides,
Into which she lurched,
Bobbing up a second later
Beckoning me in.