Blue Lagoon by Christy Mandeville
La Jolla Shores Beach Children’s Pool
Today, I was completely
neutral trudging through sand,
wiggling and wrapping my toes
around sea berries.
I walked right up the edge
of the rocks, inhaled, ready
to go splat, but stopped
myself.
I saw my friend,
down below, waved to where
they were playing with seals
in the tides,
smiled, and pointed to the sign—
Please Share The Shores With The Seals—
and laughed. Nearby, snorkelers
wore seaweed like scarves.
I worried they would be pulled
under, drowned. I felt a pull
to be alone, to rinse myself
free of sand tucked up
into all the wrong places.
I’m no fun at all.
I thought of what I’d be
missing—all the little seal noses
poking out from the foam. But
it’s something I’d already seen.
About the author:
Maya Nordine lives in sunny Chicago, Illinois, where she organizes and runs an all genre writing workshop called Study Hall. She holds an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles. Her work has been published in bath magg, The American Journal of Poetry, Small Orange, Door Is A Jar, and TYPO.
In the artist’s words:
Christy Mandeville. I have been capturing sunrise and sunset photos throughout Florida for the past 13 years. Recently I’ve learned how to take these photos a step further by transforming them in to abstract works of art, thanks to Adobe Photoshop. Blue Lagoon was captured at sunrise in N. Redington Beach, Florida.