Independence Day — Bixby Bridge
-for Carol
What fear hides in our skin has no faith in steel or design.
Through years it moves like water colors in rain,
mingles itself in moonlight, and gravity has its way,
pulling us into the dream where we have no wings.
And then there is the retrofit crew, the rusted plates
that bark like some ancient dog as the car passes over them,
a blessing in a way, drowning the Pacific waves
that sound so much like rushing air or the last whispers
of the day as we fall into sleep, hiding in the ear
like the ocean in a shell, the dark closet of falling.
Below the magnificence of the coast is a postcard,
but strength does not come from the book of splendor,
it is the breath of independence that takes in the world
and floats the blue palette of the sea in your open eyes.