Piece by Piece, by Sarah Gorham

Piece by Piece

after Beach Scene, by Eric Fischl (USA) contemporary
https://www.1stdibs.com/art/prints-works-on-paper/landscape-prints-works-on-paper/eric-fischl-beach-scene-beach-eric-fischl-aquatint-etching-nude-woman-ocean/id-a_5643452/

Oh, the ease of waves this morning, mimicking the skyline of low Shenandoah mountains, soft in their aqua green blouses. Waves shy at first with filigree at their tips, unsure, their bellies nervous underneath. Then the shiver before they fall. An inevitable overreach. In this case, the explosions are rather modest, foam reaching to the shore, withdrawing, skein-like, stretching that filigree. A heartbeat of three before the next release. 

Green and white striped umbrellas quivering in the wind, the fluttering edges like an emerald skirt. Gusts are the principal directors lifting the borders, skywards. Palm trees bowing, recovering. The lounge chairs match the umbrellas, empty and silent. For suddenly all the children and their parents have vanished. Headed to school, most likely, the beach replaced with elders—their thinning, gentle-gray hairs. She watches them as a breeze picks up, displacing their longer strands. The beach has a strand too. Close to the water where the sand is packed, hardened, much easier to walk on. The upper half of the beach, however, is full of hummocks. Tottering, staggering on this sand isn’t easy, an ankle might twist. 
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Or, once in a while, a broken sliver of shell works its way to the surface of the strand, slicing into a walker’s foot. There is blood. There is no place without blood. And clam shells, mostly, with no clams. She too was falling apart, inch by inch, the seam of her bathing suit worn till it broke open. Words abandoning her. She felt like that exhausted bit of clothing, no chance of recuperating. Why not just walk, walk, step by step into the ocean, swim with the fish, piece by piece. 

Sarah Gorham

​Sarah Gorham is a poet and essayist, with a recent essay collection, Funeral Playlist, from Etruscan Press. She is the author of Alpine Apprentice (2017), which made the short list for 2018 PEN/Diamonstein Award in the Essay, and Study in Perfect (2014), selected by Bernard Cooper for the 2013 AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction. Gorham is also the author of four poetry collections— Bad Daughter (2011), The Cure (2003), The Tension Zone (1996), and Don’t Go Back to Sleep (1989). Other honours include grants and fellowships from the NEA, three state arts councils, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.