Returning Poem by Richard G Berg

Returning to the coast
Turning back
From fleeting noon
And the unrecalled breakfast stretch of neck
Those tennis balls eloping
Into your neighbours' gardens
When school turned sour

Returning up and down
Parades of shops promising
To turn sand-castles solid
Running hot choices through fingers
Too salty to lick

Returning to the beach
Where children and dogs bite
From one happy bone. Where seagulls grease the skies with cries
That stalk the furthest rough waves

And the sea
Returns to shore, splashing
Its persistent questions
Against swimmers' and sunbathers' legs
Shunned by their sunglasses

Returning
To tarmac and restaurants and sweating bars
Where only scorched smiles and fading screams
Are allowed out

Nobody wants to return
Cocktails, dinner invitations or, to desks

Only the charred stakes of that last
Pier to go up in flames
Perfects eyesight
With the rattle of laughter
Returning


Richard G Berg
July 2025