The Shell Seeker
February 20, 1997
In somber gray she wears sandstone
white and hunches over the day
seeking treasure in liquid tone,
in somber gray.
Music plays about her toes
in waves of little half-notes
her smile murmurs through the gray
a smattering of gulls dip this way,
that way,
their willing wings
lifting the soft-shadowed day
as she lifts a tidal treasure
painted in purples, reds, creamy
browns and brings
the shell to her ear, hears day
playing among the waves
of somber gray.