We Made it to the Big Sandbox
We made it to the big sandbox where the sand is too hot to walk on without flip flops, where young architects make castles with moats and beach goers plant umbrellas like astronauts plant flags on the moon.
In the sandbox you spread your blanket out and set up your chair next to the lifeguard stand. You watch the lifeguards like a teenager, remember the crush you had on Beach Boy Brian Wilson and think that surfing looks so much cooler than paddle boarding.
Small planes with banner ads for Geico insurance pass by and you can’t help but look up. You hope that the dolphin fins you see out in the ocean aren’t sharks, but you’re reading Kurt Vonnegut and the beach feels like a primitive planet where anything can happen now.
In the big sandbox you like to watch the latest in bathing suit fashion. Your thermos of hot tea tastes better on the beach and prehistoric horseshoe crabs look like WWII helmets.
You know the water is warmer than the ocean in New England where you grew up, but a continuous wall of waves reminds you of the Berlin Wall
and the thought of crossing it feels too dangerous.
At night, the sea foam makes a swish and hiss when it delivers itself to the shore. The Summer Solstice moon makes a bridge from reality to fantasy
and you’re happy because you no longer know the difference. You forget to take the picture.
__Colleen Redman / Imaginary Garden with Real Toads/ dVerse Poets Pub
June 22nd, 2016 11:20 am
This is a wonderful share for Midsummer!
but you’re reading Kurt Vonnegut and the beach
feels like a primitive planet where anything can happen now… Such an apt observation with Vonnegut in hand.
June 22nd, 2016 2:52 pm
Thanks for that transporting sense of place. Sigh. Lovely.
June 22nd, 2016 6:47 pm
Oh, I just love this – everything about it! Great read, thank you. And brought back memories of my own.
June 23rd, 2016 12:13 am
[…] 4. We made it to the big sandbox where the sand is too hot to walk on without flip flops, where young architects make castles with moats and beach goers plant umbrellas like the astronauts planting flags on the moon, where small planes with banner ads for Geico insurance pass overhead and you can’t help but look up. You hope that the dolphin fins you see far out in the ocean aren’t sharks. More HERE. […]
June 23rd, 2016 6:16 am
Not a beacher myself, though you certainly could convert me….
June 23rd, 2016 5:24 pm
It sounds so wonderful.. though I think I would looking for shade and a book… but warmth at the beach is perfect…. love how you made it with pictures too.
June 23rd, 2016 5:43 pm
I wrote the words to the pictures, so I guess you could say it’s an ekphrastic poem.
June 23rd, 2016 6:14 pm
Would love to be there ! The pictures are lovely, I am envious!
June 23rd, 2016 7:45 pm
This so made me want to go to the beach where it’s hot and sunny and the surf is high. I thoroughly enjoyed this, text, pictures and all.
June 23rd, 2016 7:56 pm
This was a fun poem to read. It felt like I was actually there. Well done.
June 23rd, 2016 8:30 pm
I LOVE the last stanza!
June 23rd, 2016 10:31 pm
This is a perfect snapshot my childhood and teen years.
June 24th, 2016 6:44 am
I would love to be in that big sandbox and riding those waves. I went to the coast last weekend and enjoyed a day on the beach reading.
June 24th, 2016 6:54 am
Love this 😀 thanks for sharing Colleen.
June 26th, 2016 4:22 pm
Beautiful write, Colleen!
June 30th, 2016 1:46 pm
[…] When we were on the beach a couple of weeks ago, a young girl asked Joe if he was Jesus. Then, at Fandango this weekend (mini […]
June 30th, 2016 5:07 pm
Fun pics!