Liam Digges

if you look closer at the beach there are thousands of

jagged edges    my cousins unwove themselves quietly from who they used to be     though 

don’t we all    as a child I sampled sand and it scraped down my throat but I didn’t

care it was sweet like bright yellow suns and waxy like sunscreen cards our smiles

 

spilled in smoothies across the table    a short time ago we were playdoh cousins we

molded each other in infinite simplicity    every image: mush and friend and

same    one of several milestones of maturity is acquiring a sensitivity to the

    scratchiness of sand    I am shuddering in a beach house scraping the away the grains

 

from the soles of my feet I feel each tiny facet    now the carpet of sun-bleached silk only 

appears in dreams    my cousins we laugh together     but sense it    every two years we sift for the shards of our memories and reconstruct familiarity    sea glass tangrams    but 

now my fingers can’t miss the foreign edges        prickly grains on every piece