Beach Walk at Sunset

This videopoem by Laurence Overmire was inspired by his experience volunteering at a beach cleanup with SOLV, www.solv.org

BEACH WALK AT SUNSET

In the combing of the
Shore's sandy locks
The sun's slow plunge into the
Darkening sea
Amidst the natural breakage
Of stone and shell
Lies the tangled, twisted refuse of
Mass human consumption:

Beer bottle broken
Cigarette butt with a lipstick smear
Hairbrush caught in a spiraled fishing line
Dented soda can—where's your happy-go-smiling
Commercial now?

Rope without a purpose, untied
Loose end disappearing 'neath a two by four
For what? Or whom?
Q-tip, toothbrush, army man toy
An automobile's forlorn tire sloshing in
The surf, its balding tread tells no
Tales
Even an old, rusty air conditioner
Dumped unceremoniously here

On the strand where lovers walk

Odd, how the driftwood seems out of place

A child with his canvas bag
Takes up these things, unwanted stuff
His father watches well
They do their part, together

What look like shells in strange colors—
Red, green, bright orange, blue—
The young boy finds are plastic shards of this and that
Molded into some new marine-like form
Verging on the miraculous
Even the white bits of Styrofoam are almost
Unrecognizable, nestling comfortably with the
Pebbles and the rocks
The Earth somehow reclaiming these unnatural
Elements into the very body of her
Being.

No doubt one day
When mankind has long disappeared
The garbage of the past will have been
Re-made into something compatible and
Perfectly normal.

That time will come
The Earth will be cleansed
A comforting thought
For a father and his son
A mother and daughter awaiting their return
Despite what we humans may or may not do
The Earth will endure, going on as it always has
Forever at home with the revolution of sun and moon
And wayward, inconstant star.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• poetry
• Overmire
• environment
• ocean
• beach
• SOLV
• literature

[Wolfiemouse]

Wonderfully done for such a sad story.

[donnak2u]

hmmm....eerily beautiful presentation. I am going down there...and I will take a bag to collect 'unwanted stuff...'