Dinner at the Alexis Esplanade

Waterfront dusk,
scallops on my plate
resting on spinach
and citron, crisp,
I bite into flesh,
feel the crunch of sand,
envision swallowing
the ancient mountain
whose quartz crystal bones
I am eating,
devouring my ancestors
for an appetizer
to spring lamb,
waiting to become young
by what I eat, becoming
instead a hundred million
years old—suddenly
ecstatic to find
so much more life
in me, grateful and so
glad to have lived!

            Alla Renee Bozarth