Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal

Warning

Judith Behar


Only the terns stand watch,
patrol the pummeled beach,
monitor the sea's tides.
The sky is bue, empty,
no pelicans today,
no children at play in the cold.
Blind cottages face the waves,
walkways shiver in the wind,
creak their desolation.
A fading sign announces what everyone knows:
no lifeguard on duty.

_____

Judith Behar is an almost retired lawyer and former English teacher from North Carolina who has been writing poetry for decades. Some of her poems have been published in Main Street Rag, Crucible, Wordworks, Tar River Poets, and Lines from a Near Country.  The above poem has Wrightsville Beach as its literal locale.

© Judith Behar

Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal ISSN 1554-8449, Copyright © 2004-2010