Excited to see the latest issue of the great Exterminating Angel Press. I’m also happy to be included with so many other excellent writers. Check out my poem, “The old man on the beach with a metal detector.” The theme of their summer issue is “Day at the Beach” and my poem is inspired by something we’ve all seen too many times to count: someone working the shoreline with a metal detector. It was a glorious day this fall at Martha’s Vineyard when I saw an older gentleman doing his thing, and my initial bemusement (“why is he wasting a beautiful day looking for unlikely artifacts?”) caused me to look down at my electronic device, and I began contemplating some things…about him, myself, and the risk of making assumptions. Share the love and support our awesome independent literary journals!
The old man on the beach with a metal detector
Looking for what? As if concealed treasure exists
outside of books written for little boys
a century or so ago? The thrill of the hunt,
regardless of what might live several inches or less
beneath this constellation of microscopic rocks?
The resigned gesture of a bored senior citizen,
disabused of fantasies and even hope, but still in need
of a project to eat away unoccupied hours?
Or a man content with himself and his accumulation
of wisdom, understanding that the real riches
are neither in pursuit or realization, regarding me with pity
as I take pictures of a tide I neither feel nor hear, head buried
inside invisible grains of electronic white noise.
