Daring Danger

A crowd watches
eighteen-foot waves crash
on the jetty behind Morro Rock.
We share screams and squeals
when ocean swells explode,
invoking desire and dread.

The allure of controlled danger
compelled me to come,
practicing fear, and then relief,
not like my burst appendix,
not like my brother dropping dead one day:
not like those times when life crashed in on me. 

Hard Knocks

Wind-torn black flags wave
over a tethered thirty-foot vessel.
Wearing a straw hat, an oriental
chops squid. His three compatriots
bait hook after hook after hook.
From the hull a foreign song drones:
could be Hong Kong, 

but this is a Morro Bay fishing boat
and I’m on the pier. Last month
I saw thousands of rock cod brought in:
learned that baited hooks on a long line
rest on the sea bottom to catch them. 

Now, one of the men pulls up a small net,
transfers a few crabs into a box with others.
I think these are for him and his coworkers:
bottom feeders for bottom feeders. 

On My Own

Each Saturday at the nearby matinee
I stood at the counter with my coins,
heard popcorn kernels crack open,
flow over their pan like snow flakes
to be shoveled by the server.

I felt big buying the red and white box,
crunchy finger food in my control,
company for a mesmerizing movie:
John Wayne saved settlers from Indians.
Popcorn saved me from loneliness. 

Solar Power 

Baby oil rubbed on my body,
I baked beside the pool,
the sole focus of the sun,
soaking up its warmth,
hoping the perfect tan
would bring the man
who’d beam at me.

Strap marks showed.
He never came. 

Jumped Over the Moon

Dark hair frames his Adonis face
as he approaches on a moonlit night.
I curb my urge to flirt. Remember

that five decades jumped by.
I could be his grandmother.
Moonstruck, I imagine he sees me
and sighs in regret. 

Artwork by Phil Meyer

Have a playful, blue-ribbon day! 

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News and Opinion
- Management of the City of Morro Bay
-MB's Precarious Water Supply
-Desalination Test Wells
-Morro Bay Residents Win Library Fight
-Dan Berman Resigns MBNEP Position
-Ambo Placed on Administrative Leave