Longing

I am longing for the beach. I want to feel the sand between my toes like powdered sugar and my hair begin to join strand-on-strand from the salt spray.

I want to feel the way my nose stings at the end of the day from the kiss the sun gave it when it thought it was well hidden, and the way the shower perks up each of my pores with fresh water as I wash away the the lotion and sand.

I want to wear white linen shorty skirts and sandles and a pink tank top with my baseball hat and sunglasses and ride like a kid on my bike again - nowhere to go, but everything to see.

I want to eat a sandwich at a road-side joint where there are pic-nic tables sitting under cabanas and Australian pines dropping needles to soften the ground around you and there is music playing that you know from days gone by and can sing along to.

I want to wake up early and go to the shoreline to watch the sun come up - to see the colors of the morning before the sun speaks harsh words to them and makes them retreat till the cool of evening.

I want to watch little children playing with buckets and shovels - building garble that makes their parents clap their hands with pride. You know the ones - the sandled and white-nosed, floppy hatted babies with little rounded bellies showing - they going to cary those memories forward, just like we do now.

You see, today I woke up longing - for water, sand and simplicity. I wanted to escape this place for a while.......and by dreaming on paper, I have...

Ladybug