Beach Glass We traverse the park, grass shy green, cowslip replacing muddy tracks, air bright with spring— welcome respite from quarantine. Masked and cautious, we loosen the dogs, who amble freely, chase winter’s leaves, clutch broken branches like buried bones, oblivious to Covid counts and fever chills. * Along the edges of summer freedom, we search for meaning in crinoid rings, spiny sea amulets from another age. Splashes of glass, manmade, catch us mid-stride as we reach with childish glee the rare find- sharp edges smoothed by water’s urging, shaped by time and motion. Chance the currents pushed it shoreline, luck we spot its satiny surface—turquoise, pearl moss or amber. Chance we live in troubling times luck we persevere.
Nancy L. Davis has published poetry in Cutthroat, The Orchards Poetry Review, Evening Street Review (forthcoming), The Dewdrop, From the Depths, and Best of Philadelphia Stories, among others. Her work has been awarded with a Puschart Prize Nomination, First Place in the Sandy Crimmins National Poetry Contest, Finalist in the Joy Harjo Poetry Contest, and Semi-Finalist in TulipTree Publishing’s Stories That Must Be Told anthology competition. Ghosts, her chapbook, was published July 2019 by Finishing Line Press.