Birthday

in Sayulita pelicans skim the slate seaand phantom crabs exchange shell costumes

here grief’s throb sizzles into the sandlaved with foam it ebbs absorbedit is wondrous that years can pass so quicklyit is wondrous that years can pass so slow

a gray whale plumes cold breathits fluke breaches while it rollslike a hound dog in the summer mud

I want to think it waved to mebefore funneling into soft expansebut that would be like freezing its elegant sprayso that I could find the patternsI can’t discern in thread or jewels