Sitting on the concrete retainer wall overlooking Nantasket beach at sunset, low tide. Hadn’t expected to encounter so many people at this hour, but it seems okay; only a few people are passing by here on the sidewalk at this end of the beach. Mesmerized by the couple dancing to music I can’t hear, the teenagers roaming in packs, the stunning woman posing for photos like a model, the two little girls in long dresses gathering stones in the backwater, the gulls circling low over them. Weary from sadness, glad to just be sitting quietly and breathing in the salty air.
Someone is talking near me, and I realize that I am being addressed. A man is leaning against the railing, about 8 feet from me. It’s a beautiful night, he is telling me; actually it’s the perfect time to take pictures with this lighting isn’t it, and a paddle board would be so great right now but did you know how heavy they are to transport but there are actually inflatable ones that might be easier but man just go to Dick’s and buy it already for God’s sake, and those condos up there go for about one and a half million can you believe it and do you see that house stuck up there between those two condo buildings also one and a half million can you believe it there’s not even a yard, and it would be so great to be out on that paddle board right now with a girlfriend paddling at one end and man it’s a good thing we don’t have sharks up here with your limbs dangling out over that paddle board can you imagine it, but geez it’s the perfect time to take pictures with the lighting like this, and hey you look tired, are you tired? Yes, I say, it’s been a long day.
Someone is talking near me, and I realize that I am being addressed. A man is leaning against the railing, about 8 feet from me. It’s a beautiful night, he is telling me; actually it’s the perfect time to take pictures with this lighting isn’t it, and a paddle board would be so great right now but did you know how heavy they are to transport but there are actually inflatable ones that might be easier but man just go to Dick’s and buy it already for God’s sake, and those condos up there go for about one and a half million can you believe it and do you see that house stuck up there between those two condo buildings also one and a half million can you believe it there’s not even a yard, and it would be so great to be out on that paddle board right now with a girlfriend paddling at one end and man it’s a good thing we don’t have sharks up here with your limbs dangling out over that paddle board can you imagine it, but geez it’s the perfect time to take pictures with the lighting like this, and hey you look tired, are you tired? Yes, I say, it’s been a long day.