Idle time

Clustered around each other,
families doing nothing,
watching the children run circles
in the sunshine,
finding new places to dig
for the water to fill.

Slow watching large woman
under her umbrella
reading romances, one eye
on the grandkid
whose bottom is soaked in sea
and caked in sand.
Her car seats
have been covered with sheets
for forty years. Calm,
deliberate, she knows
the moment to look up,
when to warn and when to let go.

A woman strides by, with hiking
dog on yuppie leash,
and the idlers sort of smile.

1 June 1995



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