Featured Poets Week: Rita A. Simmonds

Manhattan Beach

This beach is pebbled with persons
skipping in waves.                                                                              
The wind blows hats and umbrellas
across uncountable grains.
Gulls fly in place.
Kites list in air.
Tattooed biceps pass by.
Head scarves and strings from bikinis flap freely.
Every skin is kissed by the same wind.
Every nostril cleared by the same salt air.
Every foot shifts in the same drifts of sand
moving toward the ocean’s continuous call to join its choppy dance.

The day fades and folds with chairs and umbrellas
to a sun sinking into darkening waves.
Sand is shaken from towels, totes and blankets
and everything loaded and carried away
on backs that turn slowly from a single vision:
the beauty of a dying day.

Rita A. Simmonds has published four books of poetry and a biography/memoir, Convicted by Mercy: The Journey of Frank Simmonds from the Streets to Sanctity.