(.....01july13) Seal Beach Pier

1. The Public Pier Here beyond the screaming beach, the volleyball and surfers, the fishers try to pull something alive from the veiled depths, and some succeed. Fearless pre-teens leap off the railing, then bob like seals amid the light beams dancing on the green surface. Ruby’s Diner, at the far end, half a mile toward Catalina, gets $8 a cheeseburger. and the trash boat gurgling away from its dock seems to signify that some, at least, have taken that bait. We’re neither land nor sea here, neither fish nor fowl, though both fish and fowl are all around us out on this island in the sky, this bridge to nowhere and everywhere 2. The Poets’ Pier The poets line the pier, pens dangling out over the green depths. Poker-faced, they stand or sit on benches. Every now and then a line tugs, a pen dips, a poet pulls something up and over the rail. Shining, exotic, the poem flops on the deck. The poet smiles, and the others, not so fortunate yet today, keep their watch out toward the sea.