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Sunset Calculus

    Sunset Calculus

    Sit on the frayed axis of coastline
    ocean silver flat to infinity
    your body the point of a right triangle:
    human, horizon, molten sun god.
    Watch light slide down
    the long hypotenuse into your chest.
    Weep for faded day and tally blessings
    as they fall to night’s subtraction:
    sea foam lace on wet beach slope,
    calligraphy of gulls against peony sky,
    dead fish at the high tide line, diminished
    to a smear of glassy scales and fractal bones,
    bell curve of white shell
    cupped over a scoop of sand.

    Poem by Laurel Anderson
    Photo by Dick Anderson