Breathless Tree

Reflections of morning light through a tree

On the glass of a painting of a leafless tree

White, speckles of green

I can hardly breathe, now

The turn off to Rodondo beach

An old road dipping down under the tree line

Over the creek

A slight bump into dirt

We move breathlessly into the wind along the cliff's edge

Through narrow pathways of sand and life

Not quite tree

Someone says,

"We are supposed to be heading toward the road now"

Three shadows bend forward

Over broken shells

The snake forms of

dried sea life summer

Shattered like black glass on a infinite snow field

Two headless ravens in the carcass

Of a harbor seal, recovering

There is a churning now

A tannish foam forms

Along the edge of the squawking surf

like wind and water are having loves first argument

I think of a healer

In the hawks hover

Above the black and green