Pájaro Dunes

Pájaro Dunes

Jensen Armstrong Kirkendall

Watsonville, CA

Attend the movements of the pale gray trees.
Attune to all the simple subtle shades
Of mint and peeling bark here in the glades
Of eucalyptus fading by the sea.

I leave this grove’s cold sands to find the sun;
Blown-buffeted by time, the sandy drifts
Are changed. So long and short ago these cliffs
Were playthings Danny and I would tumble down.

Now I just come to sift my thoughts and pray.
Soft sun on water alters me. Old friend,
Dear Ocean, how long it’s been. I won’t pretend––
I bring so little new: a body a bit more frayed;

A mind a bit more worn, a bit more wise;
A soul a bit more fond of clouds and skies.

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Jensen Armstrong Kirkendall
Poet & Barista

Jensen is an independent scholar with inter-disciplinary interests in formal poetry, fantasy literature, and the disenchantment. He has published poetry with Azusa Pacific University's The West Wind and co-authored a forthcoming book with Mythopoeic Press entitled Journey Back Again: Reasons to Revisit Middle-earth.

Photography by Rulo Davila