Today is just the sort of day —
a cloudless sky, crisp breezes,
wee whitecaps, metallic sunlight
reflecting almost painfully —
when you’d have called.

You’d have asked me — if I had time —
if I’d like to join you for a walk,
maybe on our blufftop boardwalk;
or, if I had time, to take a little drive
down to the pier. We’d watch the panorama:
families and lovers, surfers, dogs —
all tasting/testing briny gusts.

We made that time.
We’d talk of nothings, just Appreciation:
Time and Beauty and Creation.
We had it all there by the sea,
didn’t we?