Huntington Beach 1983

The Tidal Reach of the Pacific

————

It took twenty-two years

two thousand miles

fistfuls of No Doz

twelve rest stops

a sleepless Colorado night

and forty hours in a rental car

to finally see the Pacific.

Suddenly, there it was

stretched before me

rendered in its finest

California spandex

with leather waves

crashing like Morrison

at the Alta Cienega hotel

in a drunken crescendo

of flotsam and whiskey,

a song without lyrics.

In my youth I needed

to see and touch it,

taste its salty brine

submit to its power

its unseen tidal force

as I cast myself into

the softness of its hold

bodysurfing my way

out of my midwestern

naiveté towards the depravity

false promises and

distant broken dreams

of Los Angeles.

By Jim Landwehr

From: United States

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