For Sheila
by A.D. Winans
The Beach is Dead
The blood thin red
Dino the bartender lives
In a graveyard
chief undertaker
Dispensing pain
Like low grade cocaine
There was a time when
I might have invited him outside
Only the tough guy image
Long ago died
The beach is dead
The poets have left
Dino the bartender
Walks with spade and shovel
Having found his niche in life
The beach is dead
The ghosts cry in despair.
Mad cowboys rope my visions
Hog tie my poems.
The curse of Kerouac serenades
The demons of sleep
The beach is dead.