Afterward

 

Hurricane Ira makes landfall on Friday 

it hits with fury on Cape Cod and Fort Myers 

when we're on vacation at Windswept in Point Pleasant Beach in New Jersey

chained to the boards, a ghost rocker rocks

wet sand snakes through dune grass

sand needles scour our faces

horse-size waves rear and lash the 22’ man-made dune

grounded by the hurricane with active little kids,

beach chairs, buckets, shovels, scooter & bike, locked in the car 

bathing suits for the outdoor heated pool, shut in a suitcase

we spend rainy Saturday at Jenkinson Pier with the girls

we dash to the car, raindrops pelt art on Amy’s purple hoodie, she buckles in the girls

a one-block drive on Ocean Ave to the aquarium, Aili (age 3) chants, No good weather 

we spend an hour with penguins, eels, seahorses, stingrays, clown & lion-fish, sand shark

stop by the gift shop on the way out: Wrenna (age 6) picks a rubber snake, tubbie hippos for Aili

noon stop for kid-food: pavilion pizza, hotdog, fries in a yellow plastic bucket with a shovel

for dessert: sweet shop fudge-M&Ms, chocolate, vanilla, maple walnut, caramel with sea salt

play arcade games: hungry hippo, skee-ball, air hockey, Peugeot car-race (Aili cries), bowling 

3,500 game tickets later, the girls reap toys: ball, fan, paddle board, parachute man & bracelet 

 

for three days, the riled Atlantic pounds the shoreline

rain, sand and wind cut the visit short

before we leave Sunday morning, three dolphins leap off the boardwalk

half an hour afterwards, a whale swims by

https://spillwords.com/afterward/

Date Published: June 1, 2024