The Cacti

left alone and waiting for rain

Photo by Taryn Kaahanui on Unsplash

Children are natural collectors.
As that girl grew she accumulated distance
paved her road forward out of Red Stripe bottlecaps,
seagull feathers, and baseballs signed by Blue Claws catchers.
In the same way these shore houses are raised
above the floodline of the last hurricane
that bridge she’s building over to adulthood
would fall into the water without its herring-gull-feathered steel…