Stephen Ratcliffe: 12.3

dried hemlock stalk slanting across still dark ridge, green
passion vine-covered fence below it, cloudless blue-white
sky overhead
   man on the radio calling Jayne Mansfield
"the swansong of pre-nude sexuality in films," noting
"her immensely voluptuous body"
   woman on the phone
recalling the ocean "too green to be cold," the sun's
"bisected orange ball throwing alien pink on the water,"
so many stars she thought she was walking in technicolor

blinding silver line of sunlight reflecting across channel,
whiteness of gull on triangular orange tip of the GROIN sign