Russell Winfrey studied English at Wabash College and is currently working on an M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His poem “Saddlesore” appeared in Belleville Park Pages in 2013. He is currently working on a poetry collection titled Changing Quarters. He resides near Charlotte, North Carolina.

sanderling

the bustle of your wind-up legs
entertains

your pizzicato charge
at receding surf
and whitecaps chase you back
such a spot this well-churned earth
spitting ancient critters, knotted wrack

I don’t mean to lighten
your serious business

your clumsy syringe
rooting for sandy noshes:
some spare unseen meat
—ocean-cured

or diminish your noble frame

your little fur coat
perched on spindle galoshes
my god, in this heat!
— surely inured

I’m not.
face burnt and over-exfoliated
my hair crunchy like a beach weed

two days on a towel
and I’m ready to throw it in

much as I might
like to put you in my pocket

this is the place you are
and just a place I’ve been