Gulls blemish the air in a foul flock
as a boat with two sailors maneuver their craft
and a yellow-butterfly buffets in a small wind
along the fixed face of a freckled shore.

The horizon was a blazing parabola
that tinged the fleeing clouds fuchsia
as the boat with twin shadows on the water
glided above the waves like a skater.

The tide ran out as though harried but reluctant
and the last glint of sunlight burnished gold
on the butterfly’s bright reflective scales
as shadows began to gather in awkward corners.

The sand cooled along the fixed face of the shore
as night began to draw its curtains
and a boat disappears into a fog
of expanding distance and time.

Bray McDonald is a poet and Environmental Educator. Mr. McDonald has been published in numerous journals in the U. S., Canada and Europe. He has poetry forthcoming in ‘Evening Street Review’, ‘Plainsongs’, ‘Steam Ticket’, ‘I-70 Review’ and ‘New Reader Magazine’.