In Florida when I was nine

We spent Christmas vacation at a fancy hotel

After that year the hotel refused to book Jews

So we couldn’t go back

But when I was nine

I walked on the beach all day

Feet bare

Head down

Hunting for treasures

Up where the sand was soft and it was hard to keep my balance

And down at the tide line

Where the ground was smooth and wet

I found hundreds of seashells

Held each one up to my face to see details

To smell the ocean

To toss into my bucket

Zigzagging around sun bathers stretched out on towels

Circling groups of playing children

And sandpipers.