Sand Flea

Abstract

Sand Flea Michael Pittard (bio) If I stand here long enough the sandmight blister my feet, sizzle the lines etched on my soles, burn the brokenpieces of sea oats caught in my toes. My brother once held a sand fleain his hands & it burrowed without end into the crevices of his fingers.I should move my feet, put on flip-flops, rush into the saltwater, anythingto stop the quick reddening of my skin. Out to sea is a freighter, loomingin front of the midday sun. I cannot understand its size, how it destroysthe fiction of gravity & horizons, loaded as it is with industrial waste,ball bearings, or fuzzy bunny slippers. I could swim out there, if I wanted,climb up the metal rungs & explain to the captain how good I am at liftingwith my legs, that yes, I can operate [End Page 79] a ship's crane, & here, let me prove it.I can sleep in a hammock in a nor'easter. I'll pick up Mandarin & Farsi, no sweat.Oh how the great moments in life pass like this ship on the water, there for allto see yet moving out to that invisible line impossibly fast, until they fall off the edgeof the Earth & nothing can catch them. [End Page 80] Michael Pittard Michael Pittard is an English lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He currently serves as the Book Recommendations editor for The Bookends Review. He has an MFA in Poetry from UNCG and is a former poetry editor of The Greensboro Review. His poetry has appeared in such places as Poetry South, Coffin Bell, and The Citron Review. Copyright © 2022 Berea College ...