Huntington Beach, 2023

by Jennifer Abod


I watch her brush
sand off a feather
with little girl fingers,
decide where to perch it
on the sand mound she built
near her mother’s beach chair.

She turns toward
an orange plastic pail,
dips in a  pudgy hand
pulls out some shells.

She rocks her head
back and forth,
discards a few,
lifts her palm to show
her distracted mom.

Mom is looking at the ocean.
Husband and son,
bare chests,
wet trunks,
play and laugh
in the pull and tug
of frothy waves.

I want to nudge that mother,
tell her to notice that child at her feet,
her delicate handling of seashells,
her deliberation over a feather.


* * * * *

Jennifer Abod, Ph.D., is an award-winning, pioneering feminist/lesbian filmmaker and radio broadcaster. She is a former Assistant Professor of Communication and Women’s Studies, and Corporate Media Specialist. From 1970-1976, she sang with New Haven Women’s Liberation Rock Band. She sings Jazz, weekly, in Long Beach, California, and is working on her first poetry collection.  Her poems appear in Sinister Wisdom, Spices and Seasonings, and One Art Journal. At One Art, find her poems “Envy,” “At the Indian Ocean,” “Rethinking Pink,” and “Dance Lessons.” Her poem, “Turning Point, 1979,” appeared in Metro Weekly. Visit her at jenniferabod.com.