from the ocean, salt grains clinging

to their skin, etching the cuticles

of each tan toe, all brown

as toast, crisped from long days

at the sea’s blue lip, the favored,

the kissed, an arm draped over

a surfboard, an ice chest, legs spun

from a lathe, a pantheon of them

fallen to a scarf of beach, each delicate,

unique, complete, asleep, as if each

had been sculpted from a single tree,

their weedy hair, their driftwood knees.