The blanket of cratered footprints was thinly strewn with sleeping pillows of sand, shallow graves to short lived sandcastles of the dying day. As the sun slid further beyond the horizon’s edge, velveteen fingers of tepid light groped for hold in broad bowls overflowing with the calm of night.

-

I sat in the sand as she drifted close to the edge, pausing with her feet in the foam of the surf. She floated there shimmering, a naked silhouette bathed in embarrassed starfire.

-

Dying at the soft smile on her face, the bashful orb at last slipped its grip and sank below the immortal waves contented. Calm overflowed into a star-brimmed ocean of sky, hot pinpricks of plasma through a sheet of the darkest silk.

-

I remember the sand was warm between my toes despite the cool air.

-

She reached down to rescue an awkward shell from the roiling ledge, slipping its smooth wetness into the pocket of her shadow.  The static of the Pacific reminded the tide of time, and she stood still just long enough to make me forget.