I’ve seen a black sand beach
stranger than any foreign world
where King Poseidon draped in seaweed
once walked upon the Earth–

a black sand beach where steel-colored waves
wash up to shining, ashen stones
nested beneath charcoal plateaus that break out
all over in lime green leaves.
Neon-banded spiders cling to webs
in nooks that fill with turquoise pools.

I wait on beach-clothed friends to take their photos.
I, beach-clothed, wait and take a photo too:

silver seaspray explodes
against the crags of volcanic cliffs
where King Poseidon draped in seaweed
once walked upon the Earth.

A woman comes up from the sea with skin
smeared in black pumice mud,
trailing footprints that quickly fill
with metallic influx of seawater.

She’s not a mermaid, not an oceanid,
just a tourist who laughs and claws
the air like a sea monster with aviator-glasses eyes
as we photograph her with our phones,
and roll our eyes at the show.

–BTN 06.23.13

Originally appeared in Of Sun and Sand. See more picture of Waianapanapa State Park in this post.