Osprey - 2-26-2009 at 12:53 PM
Soft Times in Bahia Palmas
The ocean water temp is still above 70º here in Palmas Bay and we are nudging the month of march. Great weather for beach walking when the winds
abate. This whole week has been calm so I’ve been going down to the shore, getting a little exercise. Most days I’m the only one on the beach; one or
two vehicles on the beach wait for their owners in small boats who are taking advantage of the break in the windy weather.
Every day on the beach is different. Yesterday was a watercolor day, a day without sharp edges, a pastel sea with a spongy horizon hiding in the
distant mist. Everything found a way to meld with something close and soft and equally indistinct. That must be the thing that sooths and calms –
every vista lacks order, defies the human compulsion to align and straighten, to exact order from all things around them. From mountains to shore, sea
and sky one long sloping, sliding curve of uniquely undefined space. A chunk of my personal helix must be still walking with the cave people because I
feel at peace in this fuzzy chaos. The gulls and terns seem to pay me little notice. As I grow old in the place I might be fading like an old
Polaroid, like a digital image a little underdeveloped? Not enough contrast? Inchoate? Not enough pixels?
Seems this kind of space is perfect for small children and old people. Nothing to bump into, everywhere a soft place to land. No Sharp Objects
Allowed.
Maybe this is some kind of subtle identity theft. I’m losing tone and color. I keep looking back to make sure I’m leaving footprints in the wet sand.
Of course when I walk in the foam I leave no mark, no memory. Nobody saw me go down there or return. Just the birds flapped up to let me know I was
intruding. Little fluffy pests would make poor witnesses.
When I got back to the house, washed the sand from my feet in the outdoor shower by the wall my neighbor took notice, came over to greet me.
“Hi, you been to the beach?” he says.
“Yeah.”
“I was down there myself. I didn’t see you.”
“Yeah, it’s one of those days.”
Cardon Man - 2-26-2009 at 01:44 PM
Good work Osprey.
BajaGeoff - 2-26-2009 at 01:52 PM
Nice imagery....I like the notion of a watercolor day!
shari - 2-26-2009 at 01:56 PM
i always did love sepia tones! just lovely and so soft amigo.
Martyman - 2-26-2009 at 10:56 PM
Osprey, you are not fading away. Seems to me you are clear as a bell. I went to the beach with you, thanks.
BajaDanD - 2-26-2009 at 11:02 PM
Vary nice
I closed my eyes and saw it all.
Pescador - 2-27-2009 at 07:05 AM
I think Osprey is truly becoming at one with the land. I have not read a description quite like that since Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard
Bach.
desertcpl - 2-27-2009 at 09:08 AM
that was beautful,, very nicely done
vandenberg - 2-27-2009 at 09:37 AM
Jorge,
maybe it's me, but I believe you're getting better.
Great writing, thanks!!
Exquisite Verse
Mulegena - 2-27-2009 at 10:35 PM