Sun spills silver stars of light along rippling summer waves.
A string of pelicans wing the horizon,
light in flight for all their heft.

Children squeal and squirm inside their plastic inflatable, until one
slips over the side, feigns drowning, splashing and kicking,
holding onto his crying sister, then jumps back in to tickle her side –
all of them then swimming in giggles and smiles in frolic and fun,
family picnicking at the shore, waving from bright beach towels.

Other children, roped into dinghies and rafts in flimsy life jackets,
float from Aleppo across the Aegean away from bombs and bullets –
to find a way out, to forge a way in, whole families cattled by smugglers
and squeezed in dozens deep. But those who slip into this dark sea
cannot be rescued or revived with innocent teasing and mirth.

A three-year-old washes up onto the beach face down on the sand,
limp body leaden in his father’s arms,
as water laps the wounded shore.

Andrena Zawinski has two prize winning collection of poetry, Something About and Traveling in Reflected Light. Her latest book, Landings, is forthcoming in 2017. She has also authored four chapbooks. She is Features Editor at PoetryMagazine.com and founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Women’s Poetry Potluck and Salon. She lives in Alameda.

Do you have insightful, topical or just all around creative poetry that you’d like to share with the Benicia community? Submit your poems to beniciaherald@gmail.com, and they may be published in Friday’s Poetry Corner and possibly online at BeniciaHeraldOnline.com. All ages are welcome to contribute. You do not need to be a resident of Benicia to submit your poem.

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