Seal Beach Pier
A poem by Max Reif

Seal Beach Pier

  1. The Public Pier
Here beyond the screaming beach,
the volleyball and surfers,
the fishers try
to pull something
alive from the veiled
depths, and some succeed.

Fearless pre-teens
leap off the railing,
then bob like seals
amid the light beams
dancing on the green surface.

Ruby’s Diner, at the far end,
half a mile toward Catalina,
gets $8 a cheeseburger.
and the trash boat
gurgling away from its dock
seems to signify that some,
at least, have taken that bait.

We’re neither land nor sea here,
neither fish nor fowl,
though both fish and fowl
are all around us
out on this
island in the sky,
this bridge
to nowhere
and everywhere

2. The Poets’ Pier
The poets line the pier,
pens dangling out
over the green depths.
Poker-faced, they stand
or sit on benches.
Every now and then
a line tugs,
a pen dips,
a poet
pulls something up
and over the rail.

Shining, exotic,
the poem flops on the deck.
The poet smiles,
and the others,
not so fortunate
yet today,
keep their watch
out toward the sea.

About the Author:

Max Reif: ” The idea of creating “something that never existed before”, expressing beauty, truth, and maybe once in awhile even love, inspires me,” reads the epigram on my Instagram page. So, I continue to cruise through life, grateful to receive new inspirations for poems, stories, songs and paintings, all the while, working afternoons with small children at a preschool in Lafayette, CA at age 75!

Poetry Breakfast publishes a new poem every weekday morning.
If you’d like your poems considered for publication visit our Poetry Submissions page.

Follow Poetry Breakfast
Facebook