The beat goes on & on as you springsystem
us into awareness amid harbor views,
dazzling galleries, bougainvillea arched
over café walls. You’re like a humpback whale
in Hawaiian shirt communicating more than
the bare necessities of life with clicks, whistles,
vocalizations & slapping sounds. Echolocate this,
you troubadour of brotherly love! Your beard
is bread in a tangled vine, your eyes at once
sparkly beach stones, raindrops & holes
in clam shells drilled by mollusks searching for food.
You do not need to search for sustenance. You are
the provider of soul morsels & offer them freely.
After dining at Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro, we hear
a new question pepper the sidewalk by the ice cream shop:
Did you know that you’re beautiful? Saint Pete holds
a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive
days of sunshine. You’re like the Sumerian sun god Utu,
momentarily relieving us of our distress, planting joy
like moss, & for a moment, we acquiesce.
