It’s what we make of it.

Blustery June gloom Pacifica beach hoodie weather,

when the sun emerges from behind crocodile

clouds, it squints my eyes which magnify

our Father into a spinning gyrating ball

of munificence that turns crystal

to ocean blue to astonishing

twilight pink, while below

 

on the Esplanade cautiously walk a Mexican

family with those born here leading the way

for an aging bronze matriarch’s rainbow colors

and her silent-star husband’s silver mustache,

cowboy shirt tucked into jeans’ graceful paunch,

boots and ten-gallon hat. A middle–aged Chinese

fastwalking flapper wears one of those hospital

masks but no gown. A bouquet of Indian women

in saris look like a garden. Parents bounce babies.

 

Then there’s the canine parade.

A jaunty adolescent boxer slobbers

all over me as his master offers profuse

gratitude. An adorable Labradoodle’s jolly

mistress perhaps takes enthusiasm for her dog

a step or 2 too far though that’s likely my prob.

Brace of mangy German Shepherds leash-lugged

by young Russian lovers: the imposing couple launch

smiling Nриветs which I assume mean something like Hey!

[Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/]

 ***

 

Gerard Sarnat MD received his education at Harvard where he was the editor of the freshman literary magazine The Yardling, and Stanford. He established and staffed clinics for the disenfranchised, has been a CEO of healthcare organizations, and was a Stanford professor.  

Gerry is published in over a hundred journals and magazines and is the author of three critically acclaimed collections:  HOMELESS CHRONICLES from Abraham to Burning Man  (2010), Disputes (2012), and 17s (2014) in which each poem, stanza or line has 17 syllables. 

For Huffington Post reviews, reading dates including Stanford, publications and more, visit GerardSarnat.com.  His books are available at select bookstores and on Amazon, and his work appears in literary magazines stocked by Barnes and Noble among other distributors.

Gerard has been featured this year as Songs of Eretz Poetry Review’s Poet of the Week with one of his poems appearing daily. Dr. Sarnat is the second poet ever to be so honored.