The Gray LIne

 [I also wrote this sad poem at 11.]

The Gray Line (1978)

The gray line of the beach lost its silence.

People, beautiful people,

With laughing joy have replaced silence.

And the beautiful seagull with a tear in its eye,

the loud vehicle with the engineer at

the wheel,

and the artichoke shaped like a clover,

with an incredible capacity inside for

love and equal rights has taken over

the seashore.

Such success and friendship this beach

had with silence.

Now silence stalks in darkness as the

beach lies there as helpless as a broken

winged bird on a window pane.

This gray-lined beach is dirty now.

It could be replaced by another of its

kind.

But there never will be another of their

beach's kind

Never.

Let it shine in dignity.

This beach will remain as helpless as a

man in a center of a desert with no food

or water, and will remain thinking of

itself,

with silence at his side

Emotional trust depends on him to speak,

Or silence will kill him and his gray

life.