In Florida when I was nine

We spent Christmas vacation at a fancy hotel

After that year the hotel said No Jews

So we couldn’t go back

But when I was nine

I walked on the beach all day

Bare feet

Head down

Hunting for treasures

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

Or down at the tide line

Where the ground was smooth and wet

I found seashells

Holding them up to my face to see

Details

To smell the ocean

To collect each shell in my bucket

Each piece of coral

Or sponge

Zigzagging around sun bathers stretched out on towels

Circling groups of playing children

And sandpipers.