You OK dad?

La Push 28 April 2023 (hike with Lily)

It was 10 years to the day

You in your little pink dress, at three

Sandy cheeks, crumbling castles

toes splayed to the lapping wavelets

My arms outstretched, tending

Ready to catch you as you mount the driftwood

You OK Lil’s? I got you!

Your mum and I shut down but trying

Hoping for some light, hoping to be seen again

And now, freshly released from the tangle of metal braces

You look back at me, balancing my way furtively over the logjam

You OK dad? All good?

Love is this

Tide turning and returning again

Sea-stacks into islands and back into earthly knuckles

Surging, swelling, then merging again with the Mother

Morning mist sailing out of the warming glory

Dangling dreamy from a flotsam swing

A whale disc revealed with the rustle of sand receding

The sun hits my flysheet dappled with dew

Do drops really evaporate with the sun?

I never paid attention for long enough to be sure

Half an hour passes, trying not to blink.

Now I know

Love is this