The One That Got Away

Toweling on the beach

I fall into a sleep

And dream you wash ashore…

With pearly flesh and dolphin-like chatter

You charm my sea-struck eyes

And immediately win my heart.

We mingle in the surf

And comb the water’s edge

Amid the tidal waste.

I bend for pretty shells

To fasten in your hair

And hopefully win your heart.

But you laugh at my humble gifts

And mock my poet’s soul

In the stinging August sunshine.

I awaken from my dream

To find that you are gone

Or maybe never real.

Spurned by love again

I bait a treble hook

And cast into the sea…

            ~by

Doug Macomber