amidst a sultry warmth

three boys answered

the call

of Devonian dawn

and with no words to warn

saw no cause

to fear the sirens luring call.

 

surf gently boiled trims the shore

with silver pearls,

then, with throaty holler

and backs arched

three boys

cast their bodies into the brisk and briney

 

blue who’s welcome embrace extorts

gleeful gasps

with her cooling.

arms now a-wheel

three boys set their sights on a distant rocky shore

 

where bare, hot feet dance on baking crust

after fashioned

clumsy landing

as lizards bask

three boys fail to grasp a tide swiftly changed.

 

where there was naught

two vivid flags now fiercely fly

extol the demarked zone

where now

three boys are in clear breach.

 

panicked hearts must throw themselves

at safeties shore

arms and blood pump

but with riptides pull of each drive alee

three boys foresee their drowning.

 

 

 

with the last breath gasp of a final push

they hit the beach

landed fish flop lungs stretched to burst

where three boys see,

in thankful eyes, no words need they speak