Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “August 25, Third Beach” by Jessica McMillan.

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August 25, Third Beach

By Jessica McMillan

the peninsula spins evergreen

aroma braiding Pacific

current and mountain breeze

dressing down to cherry trees

stretched in whitewashed sky

framing the cliff, their limbs

the saviours of naked space.

the forest in the city,

cool with ancient boulders

anchors cedar heavens

dangling sunned silk

dusted with leaf dander.

from bedrock to soil alights

dandelion seeds, filaments of ecstasy

flicker among White Cabbage wings

and tiers of bleeding hearts

drip petal fat, soapy as the sea-foam

at the shore sluicing across waves

of sienna green, belly rolling

crab exoskeletons back up to mossy sandstone.

seagulls echo the granite seawall

rimmed with weekend bathers warming skin

and you are on my hip in a bucket hat

collecting a minute of mirth,

making seaweed bracelets

in the name of today, which is praise

for all we truly need.

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Copyright © Jessica McMillan

Jessica Lee McMillan (she/her) is a poet and civil servant with recent/forthcoming work in CV2, The Malahat Review, Canadian Literature and others. Her chapbook Shine Like a Dime in the Dirt under the Moon is now available via Pinhole Poetry. Jessica lives in New Westminster, BC with her little family and large dog. www.jessicaleemcmillan.com

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