Paper Submarine

Something I was supposed to do got done
none of it really finished
interrupted by the neighbor’s bagpipe playing,
              airplanes coming in too low off the beach,
telephone calls I never answered,
                              tribal umbrellas,
                                                buzz-whistles & bells,
              the zig-zag loop hidden in a straight line,
                              & your necklace of
                                                                fingerbones
enough to make a grown man
              cop to habits that may be spiritual
                              but you wouldn’t know it to look at the
                                                                pacific coast highway
                                                on a Thursday afternoon
                                                                                    in Octumble
                              (a temporary coral blossom
adrift expecting the exact center of autumn
                                                                albacore sky, roaring water
              a list of things to do fluttering to the ground
like a blank sheet of sunset