a walk with a brown heron, he was my height, along the littoral. ragged lace dogs the sand. coquinas bore in sideways, sucking pastels. heron kept looking at me out of his narrow side eye, using the other side eye to monitor the churning 2 foot breakers for fish. his giant talons. a peeping, speckled string of sandpipers skirts the dirty foam, which picks up in the winds and blows down the beach. mom attempts to read vanity fair in the outter bands. heroin chic model flaps wildly. a gull watches. we go to the Sea Hag that night. old Christmas tree in the corner, a winters' scene of Budweiser Clydesdales framed on the wall, two murals, using Marvel comics colors. one woman reclining on a beach amid martini olives the size of coconuts. another in a bikini rding a giant grouper like a bucking Bronco. mom wears her soft, rayon nightgown dress to dinner. joe, still sulky, earlier, standing alone in the water, there fight visible from a distance. two gymnasts in a grey tide.
