The Drownings

Grasses here plume

for no reason.

Tablecloth waves

spread dead leaves

& charcoal. We struggle

on dunes & taste

air salt. I wanted

to ask what spirit

desires of us,

but I am seemingly

suspended in midair,

while clouds move

left to right.

Bare-chested men

& women in bikinis

shiver. Children,

face up in sand, lie

stunned. The hillside,

buff & white,

is an illusion:

its roots exposed.

At sunset, clouds

move left to right—

they just left.

Jan Wiezorek writes and paints in southwestern Michigan. The London Magazine, Abstract Magazine, Minetta Review, and The Orchards Poetry Journal, among others, have published his poems. He taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago, and wrote the ebook Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011).