Playa Azul by sd gross

[sd gross]

PLAYA AZUL
by Stephen D. Gross



Sultry Southcoast afternoon
steaming, wet
capillary action sucks
the carrion stink
to the surface where
the rank, dark juice
seeps through the town
mingling with the
rot, the sweat,
the decaying fruit

An August cloudburst
dances with the surf
Like hounds on the boiling beach
Wild pigs root and run free
Curled chestnut toes
sepia snakes cozy
in the offal and muck
chestnut fingers
soft super conductors
white dresses and walnuts
capped by inkstains
spreading
over the sunbeaten gray wall
the trio focuses on
the torn rectangle
the dogma within
the candidate's earnest stare
of intimidating benevolence
A man savagely decapitates
a coconut
The barefoot boys
by the coke machine
laugh as he shoves two straws
into the open neck
An ancient toothless woman
gums something green and greasy
as she tends her pigfire
and keeps an eye on the little parade
the two girls and their
monkey-rumped brother
are still musing
over the glowering
face of Ibarra
floating in the sky above
Lazaro Cardenas Michoacan