Crimson and Clover

Coos Bay glows crimson at sunrise.

Elmer the husky romps through clover.

I start singing the song.

The Empire Boat Ramp—October morning.

We approach the trail to the beach.

I see and old man in his SUV

watching porn on his phone.

She’s got long black hair

and bucks bare ass on the leather,

screaming someone’s name.

Elmer runs amok in the mudflats.

No wind.

Two boats ply the water.

Drifts of smoke from campfires in the homeless encampment.

I see pelicans, a seal, gulls, ducks, sanderlings.

I see a naked man taking a piss on riprap

near his tent.

Elmer and I return to the boat ramp.

Two Jehovah’s Witnesses, women,

display a poster near the entrance to the crabbing pier.

It’s Jesus nailed to the cross.

Some lines about world peace, too.

And unlikely spot for conversion, I think,

but who knows?

Baptism in the bay is handy,

real John the Baptist stuff,

in the field,

in Coos Bay!