My friend has great dress sense Gets drunk on wine uses an accent totters in the highest of heels cleavage is key bumps her long silky hair winks at the boys always the tease We watch, almost mesmerized We wonder, what it means to be her.

A queer stillness unlike the beaches I know unseen crows flap black wings create the only stir in the dead air. I build sand-castles I build sand-castles in the sand the sand is wet and rough to touch, I build towers to keep things un-stolen, I build walls and chafe smoothness. I build a moat to keep the crocodiles in. ...