Key West Madonna Poem by Barry Middleton

The girl in blue upon the sand
intrigues me like this southern land.
She always smiles as if to say
that I could speak but words betray.

She watches casually her child
and notices my sometimes smile,
then turns to check and be assured
to find her view is not obscured
but playing idly on the sand,
a tiny shell held tight in hand.

I watched her from the farther side
struck dumb before the southern tide
and might have spoke only to say
that she was beautiful today.

But to the sea, beneath the foam,
I nourished other thoughts of home,
a longing to be small and free;
the tide lets go and leaves me be.