Beached
John A. Vanek
Photo by Michael Moreth

A Miss America Pageant finalist
in her mind, dressed to the “nines”
in a binary world,
on a nude beach,
she wonders whether to
come out of the water
or go deeper, but

hypnotized by the horizon
she waits for a ship
that will never come in,
waits for the hand of God,
or any hand,
to transport her
to some Shangri-La by the sea.