I stuck a board on the wall above my desk
to help untangle the timeline of a book
the board looked empty, accusatory,
so to cheer it up I tore a page out of a sketch pad,
drawings I’d made on Vromolimnos beach
Skathos, three years ago (something like that)
rough studies of the people around me
a man in a cap, a woman in a bikini;
a group of guys standing in the water,
three looking right, the other looking down
working quickly because everyone was moving
but I lacked the knack
so I turned instead to draw
Eloise, asleep beside me
under a beach towel

now, here I am, three years later
(something like that)
sitting at my desk
writing this poem

the board in front of me
still mostly empty
except for those sketches

I wish I was there now
I wish I was sitting on Vromolimnos beach
I could try capturing that sea
those endlessly slack and crystalline waves,
pulsing in like signals from a
deeper, darker, territory of blue

But hey! Who am I kidding?
Watch me throw that pencil down!
Watch me sprint across the sand!
Watch me dive into the water!

Try drawing that!