The next wave rolls in. Coquina clams burrow.
Terns scan for bait in the yellow spareness of evening.
A porch door slams, a pelican
lifts with laborious grace.
I lay down in the pale-melon light
as a little protesting voice dies out.
Against the erasing tide, my sand shape changes
from imprint to afterthought to nothing.
From “East Beach,” published previously by Dunes Review
Tidal, Mary Dean Lee’s debut poetry collection is available now
at Pine Row Press
Mary Dean Lee’s poetry has appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2021, Ploughshares, The Fiddlehead, and Salvation South, as well as other journals. She grew up in Milledgeville, Georgia, studied theatre and literature at Duke University and Eckerd College, and received her PhD in organizational behavior at Yale. She lives in Montreal.
Rainey Gregg Photography LLC
Mary Dean Lee 