Sitting on the beach just ahead of my wife and me,
a young mother organizes her breasts for nursing.
In a carrier, a baby, all mouth and appetite,
waits wailing for the guarded ritual of release and relief,
when the secreted nipple, heavy with milk, appears,,
like our galaxy at night, ready to feed the soul’s imagination.
The watchful father/husband,
a year ago, simply an excited young man,
now vigilant between wife and world,
modesty shielding necessity,
drapes a van Gogh Starry Night
beach towel over his wife’s bare shoulders
and hands to her their hungry child.
Nearby,
a seagull pecks at a starfish.
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Galaxias Kyklos = galaxias kuklos (Gk.) ‘milk circle’ Milky Way, ‘galaktos’ = milk
Starry Night – well-known painting by Vincent van Gogh
Fort DeSota Beach
Tierra Verde, Florida
2022