Driving into Half Moon Bay

Pat Tompkins

Coastal living: a mile inland from the public beach,
Vista del Mar trailer park, immobile homes crammed
on a paved lot. East of the faded blue single-wide,
a field of brown goats. To the west, an Oddfellows
cemetery, long full and forgotten: south: a two-lane
highway; north: more canned homes. Headstones,
weeds, wooden huts, all washed gray. Across the road,
new condominiums; white trims windows that look
onto neighbors, boxed in by more boxes. A short cast
away, Red and Curly’s Bait Shop sells fresh roast peanuts.
Near the road’s shoulder, ground fog cloaks naked ladies.
Cost of living: kites skitter above the littered beach.