Dawn at the Carquinez Strait

By Thomas Piekarski

PROMPT — If only ...

There is much disclosure of facts

about mankind's impending fate,

but our human faculties fall short

of altering those forces in charge

that shape eventual consequences.

The foolhardy and faint of heart

skirt responsibility, shoo lessons

of enlightenment from soft heads,

ignore nature's edicts, their fright

casting shadows upon what's right.

We're warned, yet casually embrace

lame apps and movies, seek romance

so to inculcate them in one big wave

of circumstance. And no matter what

that wave will keep on rolling along.

But alas this lengthy Carquinez Strait,

waterway across which the steel bridge

is obscured by haze as seagulls squawk

and drift with a relentless easterly wind

while moss along the shoreline gleams.

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Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Taj Mahal Review, Poetry Quarterly, Literature Today, Poetry Salzburg, South African Literary Journal, The Frogmore Papers, and many more. His books of poetry are Ballad of Billy the Kid, Monterey Bay Adventures, and Mercurial World. Thomas writes from Sacramento, California.