AFTERNOON
ON THE BEACH
by
Elizabeth Zelvin
I thought the swim would be the main event
August water finally warm, the current benign
today
indolent surf, high tide poised to ebb
I came prepared for perfection
not for jellyfish small as seed pearls
inviting me to bathe in tapioca
reading on the beach, I surfaced from my book
to cries of Whale!
a plume of spray
a waving flipper whiter than a sail
a vast gray cetacean body heaving halfway out
of the swell. As far as humans know, whales
breach
because they can. The humpback
flings itself aloft for sheer delight
for half an hour this showoff swam
parallel to its audience on the shore
the bright flipper rose and fell, the tail
flirted
the great body glided back and forth
I didn’t blink or look away
I couldn’t stop smiling
they say to meditate is to aspire
to exist in the moment, with long practice
to approach it for a trickle of time
to achieve it for a matter of breaths
I can live in the moment only in the ocean
sailing weightless over the rollers
cool silky water caressing my limbs
but ah, the whale! there’s a creature of the
now
no anxiety, no regret, a vast serenity
in the greater vastness of the sea
singing while we moan about how to fix it all
swimming parallel to our troubled world
Elizabeth Zelvin is the
author of two books of poetry, I Am the Daughter (1981) and Gifts and Secrets (1999), and recipient of a CAPS
award from the New York State Council on the Arts. During the Second Wave of
the women's movement, her work was widely published in such journals as 13th Moon, Heresies, and the anthology Sarah's Daughters Sing.
Recent poems have appeared in Yellow
Mama as well as in anthologies of work about COVID and in support of
Ukraine. Liz also writes short and long form fiction, including the Bruce
Kohler Mysteries and the Mendoza Family Saga.
Elizabeth
Zelvin, multiple Derringer & Agatha awards nominee
The Bruce Kohler Mysteries
The Mendoza Family Saga
http://elizabethzelvin.com
Bernice Holtzman’s paintings and collages have appeared in shows at various venues
in Manhattan, including the Back Fence in Greenwich Village, the Producer’s
Club, the Black Door Gallery on W. 26th St., and one other place she
can’t remember, but it was in a basement, and she was well received.
