I shall live by the ocean and walk a sandy shore.
And there shall I find a long boardwalk
with benches worn rough, and toddlers
dripping ice cream and seagulls divebombing
elephant ears on paper plates.
Sandpipers on spindle-legs dare the waves.
Lost car keys, found, and red crabs burrow down.
A good dog at my side, shaking off, ready to go.
​
             Children, when it’s time,​
             will you find for me​
             a headstone crumbling,​
             my name already faded?​
             Visitors will wonder​
             at such a dusty grave, so dark​
             yet lush with honeysuckle.​
             How beautiful that shall be​
             and so fine,​
             so far from the sea.​
 

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Image credit:Frank McKenna
Mary MacGowan

Mary MacGowan's chapbook, Spider Lake, was published by Kattywompus Press in 2019. She earned her M.Lit with a poetry writing concentration from Drew University. She got her master's in Art Therapy from Pratt Institute in 2002. A very long time ago she was a music major at NYU as a Singer/Songwriter. She's has had over 100 poems featured in literary journals such as Adelaide, Dash, Change Seven, The Literary Review, The South Carolina Review, Apple Valley Review, POEM, and Manorborn. Mary illustrated a children's book using song lyrics she wrote with a friend, it's called Baby Ride - available on Amazon and has sold exactly zero copies. She enjoys slow walks to catch the poem or whatever it is that may need catching.