Bodega Bay Eclogue

The rain’s been falling for weeks, Bodega Head ethereal in mist,
the fishing boats almost mirages, odd arrangements of sticks
like tiny black letters in the grey and yellow light,
but we’ve come out, my dog and I, to walk the gravel road
to the beach between the rusty marshes, green and red with ice plant
in full regalia for spring, the signal most years for the rains to cease,
the long dry months to begin here along the North Coast
where the land meets up with the sea in a friendlier way
than the bluffs of its neighbor, Bodega Head, its precipitous trails
and brightly clad whale watchers with their weekend binoculars and hats. 
Here sandy loam wetlands ease the land’s way out to the crashing Pacific,
still aloft in its winter waves.
 
No one else out in this weather, and this is our last day here,
the dog and I. Time to close up the cabin and return to the city,
to the man who sits rooted at the window, half ghost, listening
to the invisible birds at the feeder, freely coming and going.
But here the dog has found a mole hole to pounce on
and now she’s gamboling off to see what’s up ahead. 
 
And now I can see the whole wetland before me
and there’s a small packet of brown ducks
in the upper corner of the canvas, and closer in,
along the trail, a snowy egret stands fishing for her supper,
immobile as if she were made of stone. 
 
I leash the dog and sit here on this wooden bench
dedicated by some bereaved soul to a loved one who has passed,
the metal plaque rusted away in the salty air.  Still
the missing person, who no doubt walked here daily
among the tall grasses between ponds
sits invisibly dreaming on the bench beside us. 
 
Two Canada geese flap in honking, skid side-by-side
across the water between the reeds and come to rest,
well-deserved – it’s spring migration time and they
may have come all the way from Mexico. 
 
And now the egret is giving it up. 
She raises her wings tentatively
and then with a strong surge they flap and she is up
her long golden legs trailing behind her white feathers
as she lifts above us and soars away
out over the emerald hills.