Sandcastles

My toes sink into the damp sand
waves splash up
to bury my feet
the sun beats down
and my hair sucks it in
imitating the golden rays

warm my pale skin
but rosy my cheeks
and I trudge back to
the umbrella masking my
beach blanket.
The calluses on foot bottoms
vaguely painful
from sandfire.

My mind changes and
instead of clean and cool
on the blanket under the
umbrella,
I choose the warm sunlit
sand
and ignore the grit in my hair
Later leaving behind only
my sand angel,
and the castle I want to
live in someday.
Sept. 1995