Hatteras Island Poem by Andrew Dabar

Innocent and unaware
Of all who've been swallowed there
Small children play at the mouth
Of a hungry behemoth
Pretending to be friendly
Until the weather's windy

Lapping their fingers and toes
With a salty tongue it knows
How to say in ocean spray
Please come close or stay away
It might wave at them or roar
Delight then splinter the shore
This fickle monster so dear
To summer year after year

A frothy rush and recede
Returns with powerful speed
The seen so often unseen
Black hidden beneath blue green
Ignoring a mother's plea
Pulling her child out to sea

Youth isn't bound by such fear
Children keep returning here
Swim the edge of life and death
Breathing deep each precious breath
Like Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
Wake up or return to God
____________
Andrew Dabar