The bay once flowed and ebbed
where children built castles,
shoveled for sand crabs
and tossed frisbees to playful pups.

Now it gushes in, unwelcomed
fistcrests seizing handfuls of shoreline
to stir in undercurrent mouthswirls
of debris, before shallow swallows.

I stand on a scanty stretch of beach
looking out at a seagull on a sandbar
in silent screams of despair
that little sand remains in the hourglass.