LYNN NICHOLAS

★ ★ ★ ★

POETRY

Watermark Memories

Wind-whipped waves bully the shoreline,
lakebed sand shifts,
eliciting creaks of protest from the swaying wooden dock.

My desert nose twitches as pine and juniper,
merge with mowed grass,
eclipsing smoky park picnics and organic lake debris.

Deep-belly breathing, inhaling long-forgotten fragrances,
untouched by time,
unclasping sandals with impatient fingers, a girl again.

Specks of loamy soil intrude through mossy summer grass,
crushed by naked feet,
freckling fragile white skin and tinting toes green.

Wayward gusts convey scents of watermark moments,
decades buried,
re-awakening memories imprinted on the folio of a lifetime.

Toasting with fizzy orange sodas and campfire hot dogs,
impaled on sticks,
dripping juices onto warm, sticky hands, flecked by embers.

Images hover and tremble at the threshold of recollection,
vision blurs,
dampening my cheekbones with uninvited tears.

Beachfront beckons, tentative toes curl at water’s edge,
eyes cast downward,
scanning stones for broken glass, I wade-in ankle deep.

A scavenger seagull tilts a curious eye, hungry and hopeful,
struts away,
patrolling the beach, imprinting wet sand with three-toed tracks.

Gasping at mountain-runoff chill, two teenage girls plunge in,
splashing past,
trailing scents of oranges and sunscreen, still sticky on their skin.