Gray Day

The sun did not show its face today. Instead, persistent fog has grayed the sky and everything beneath it. In the bay nothing was happening.

On the beach I puzzled again about patterns in the sand. The dry sand is tan, but when the waves recede these wavy lines of black and white appear. Finally I realized that sand is made up of particles of many kinds of eroded rocks. As a wave recedes the black grains sink first, the white grains, weighing less, are carried a bit further toward the water and the tan grains stay put.

At the end of our beach walk I came upon a dead gull. It seemed still to be flying. Gray skies, gray water, and I mourned its passing.

This gray day will end with another crashing thunderstorm – a period at the end of a long, colorless sentence.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer