The Maritime Heart (Poetry)

I live miles inland
yet my heart breathes salt
at the edge of sand
where goosefeather sky
gusts grit in my eye

Flats wash themselves grey
reflect on the dawn
slow sea-wrinkled day
sharp-splintered by shrieks
from worm-hungry beaks

Gulls swoop low and turn
wings cutting like scythes
the sun’s ray’s cool burn
that rolls back the mist
where drowsing thoughts list

like wayward vessels
on the morning’s tide
flexing its muscles
waves glitter and run
green’s weaving undone

Sense vividly blue
as time beats away
a maritime view
crab wize in its shell
ear tuned to the swell