Worked close to the ocean
all week, but had
not one glimpse of it —

my days spent a scant few miles 
from where the Pilgrims 
staggered ashore,
yet I caught not one whiff
of who they were and
what they brought with them — 

or so I thought until I saw
how blasted the early winter land looked,
how the new office buildings
built next to the sand and gravel pits
seemed out of place and
mistaken, how cold it was here
with the East Wind coming in
from unseen water.

I pulled my long black coat
tighter around me.