Spring Break on The Gulf of Mexico

The colors on the shaded side

Of the pastel pink Inn

Run as the sun creeps from behind

Blending lavender across my vision

Which cloud the hues

As I look to the west

Over the Gulf into

The color of my eyes…

The aroma of stale beer

And cheap suntan lotion

Nauseates me but is soothed

When, like a Bloody Mary the morning after,

The scent of an open grease pit

And frying bacon

Waft into my senses…

Waves of white foam

Lap the gray sand

Waves of white heat

Lap the gray sidewalk

Rising like a sheet of aluminum

Warbling on the breeze

Yet it’s only the sound

Of a young girls laughter

Peddling past on her bicycle

Smiling with amateurishly applied lipstick

While she holds the toes

Of her flower printed flip-flops

Against the spokes of her cruiser…

They flutter like the swarm

Of the season’s first Love Bugs

That I wave away from

The path of my Spring Break