The sun ignites the clouds to flame
as it sinks into the waiting sea. Overhead
a perfect formation of birds, silhouetted
against the last tinge of light, silently
wing across the sky to nest for the night.

Spindly-legged sandpipers scurry
across the beach as an impatient wave
tumbles over the outgoing tide, eager
to drench them with spray. The ghostlike form
of a man trudges down the Strand, dwarfed
against the background of billowing breakers.

Jupiter dimly blinks in the onrushing dusk, emerging
in all its brilliance when the last hesitant light
sinks beneath the sea. The oppression of night
silences the birds and all that can be heard
is the crashing of waves upon the sightless shore.

(Won First Place in Category 3 in Pennsylvania Poetry Society 2013 poetry contest)