Autumnal scents
and steamy warmth -
apple butter making time.

Dark back rises,
   slides into the swell,
      beneath a vapory plume.

Fox leaps from dune grass,
      a quick tail flick -
gone in ocean fog.

Keening wind,
hissing sand -
   the ocean is whispering....

Fog promenades,
   meandering
among
   beach walkers.

   Crashing waves
cannot compete
   with the sea lion chorus.

Smoke twines the salmon stick
in the freshening breeze:
   tide shift.