A Dream: Moment of Reckoning

Moment of Reckoning
CC Jean Stimmell: 9/13/14*

A Dream I Had Last Night

I am walking along the shore trying to find access to the ocean

until, after hours pass, I come across a run-down state park. 

I pass through an overgrown field of rubble and old tires

and come to a gate in an old rusty, chain link fence:

Passing through, I finally arrive at my destination,

a sandy beach shelving off into swirling surf,

blood red in the glow of the setting sun.

Large luminous waves crest and break as they near shore

which would normally attract me to jump in and body surf

but this whole scene seems ominous and treacherous 

so i gingerly wade out in the surf just to my ankles 

when I am grabbed by an immense undertow,
terrifyingly swift, feeling like certain death
which I am barely able to escape
falling back to the beach
a puddle of fear.

* This image is a collage made by combining a photo I took of a sunset over Jenness Pond on 7/1/12 and a photo I took on 9/12/13 of a surfer braving the elements south of Cannon Beach in Oregon.