Diabetic seagulls,
chili dog and French fry-fed,
jellyfish in seaweed aspic,
turtle choking on a soda straw,
crabs who left their claws
enmeshed in fish nets.
All bets are off
for this year’s bumper catch.
A plastic sand pail cracked,
useless now, but as an hour glass
out of control.
An umbrella’s cracked ribs,
chairs with battered knees,
boogey board, bloody, shark bitten,
all forsaken.
A jelly donut into whose blast
a cigarette was mashed,
a flattened inflatable raft,
left after air’s gassy leaving,
a perfectly good grenade
but for the pull ring missing.
Bless the city fathers.
Bless the bicycled police.
Bless the taffy pullers.
Grant them release.
Bless the sweating fry boys,
the fly boys, who
aeronautically advertise
the raw bars.
Bless the year-round residents,
who give us leave
to fuck up their beach.
William Derge
William Derge’s poems have appeared in Negative Capability, The Bridge, Artful Dodge, Bellingham Review, and many other publications. He is the winner of the $1000 2010 Knightsbridge Prize judged by Donald Hall and second place winner of the Rainmaker Award judged by Marge Piercy. He has received honorable mentions in contests sponsored by The Bridge, Sow’s Ear, and New Millennium, among others. His work has appeared in several anthologies of Washington poets: Hungry as We Are and Winners.