The Fifth Of October Poem by Laurence Overmire

One night on a beach
Changed everything
A brush of cloud across the moon
The California sand cool
To the barefoot touch
The lap of waves advancing and retreating
We sat upon the shore and listened
Ancient tales told by the light of distant stars
Held close in the dark
Dreams stretching farther than the naked eye
could see…

One soft kiss
Was all it took
The wind reaching inside us
Breathless
Time lost all bearing
New worlds were born
And the past, like an empty shell
Rolling in the wake
Receded
In the swash of the incoming tide.


(Previously published in Webstatic, Jan.2000; Poetry the Write Way Anthology, Writers Club Press,2000)