Summering in Wildwood, NJ

in a few days, i’ll be on a beach
so bright i can see the sun through my fingers,

each thin vein lit
up blue like a heron’s leg.

this poem is not so much about a beach
as it is about arriving,

blowing stop signs
until the coast affirms

that lines are always changing,
and the tide tells me

my body can morph
as many times as it needs.

Copyright Credit: Poem copyright ©2021 by Kayleb Rae Candrilli, “Summering in Wildwood, NJ” from Water I Won’t Touch (Copper Canyon Press, 2021).