After the Storm on Lake Michigan

Drifts of ladybugs
too many plastic tampon injectors
collapsed colonies of bees and graduation balloons
newly dead deer painted on a sand floor
carp and catfish with mortar hole eyes
abalone rubber
granite styrofoam
sunken torn cans await their prey
rounded planks, bolts, rootless black sedges splayed like linguine
red and mustard running boards on a dark turtle
a no-longer-mourned set of house keys
grounded robin and Monarch
over and over this ocean lake upchucks its coarse and colorful meal
lapping up twisted sticks
yards of crushed shells and woody rot


photo/poem: E.Bouman