Rituals (after Rimbaud)

To Our Lady of Wet Sand
                              resolute, inviolate
              a garland of seaweed in her hair
―For the damp souls of the drowned

To Sister Yolanda Pipeline
              resigned to dice games
                              in the heart’s house
―For children consumed by fever

To Mustang Sally
                              in her bikini of corrugated steel
the awkward flutter of her eyelashes
              makes a sound like wind
rustling through a field of grass skirts
―For the unforgiven

To the revolutionary cadres of Balboa, Malibu & Rincon

To the benediction of the tides
                                                annointed by salt spray & foam
              ceremonies of beach concrete
                              w/a late summer sun tilting back in the sky
a tangle of shadows & stuttering neon script
―For those who have yet to lose their way

Simple descriptions of landscapes
seascapes         parked beneath halos
                                                (the saltwater sacrifice implied)
to ride the pulse back & down
                              the surging wall of night
              where you step         turn         & dissolve