The beach is the place to go.
On Saturday afternoons in Santa Monica.
For singles, couples, families.
Pigeons, seagulls.
So, that’s where we set out.
In the family’s Lincoln Aviator.
Two parents, three boys, two grandparents.
The sun shone, but breezes chilled.
The children, in bathing wear, seemed not to mind at all.
Jumping on play equipment first.
Then zipping to the broad, long beach.
The toddler running to the ocean.
The two older ones toward driftwood.
That other bathers organized into a round fence.
I love it here, said Arthur, three.
Romping with his older brother.
Inside wooden walls.
Picking up long sticks.
Holding them like weapons.
Finding stones of every shape, size.
Multiplying joys of being outdoors.
Free to run in all directions,
move to the beat of waves.
Turn driftwood, stones into castles,
dig holes as big as caves.
Lynn Benjamin
March 20, 2024
