A bare-legged boy,
tanned, with hair blowing,
stands on a sandy shore.
He wonders about creatures
swimming beneath the milk-green sea.
Against the distant horizon,
long, low patches of islands
stretch like nocturnal animals,
while the warm salt breath of the earth
lifts his vision, rising,
to a cloud-washed sky.

© by Christine Jackson.
Used here with the author’s permission.