oceanside

It was cold and windy, scarcely the
day to take a walk on that long beach
Everything was withdrawn as far as possible,
indrawn: the tide far out, the ocean
shrunken, seabirds in ones or twos.
The rackety, icy, offshore
wind numbed our faces on one side;
disrupted the formation
of a lone flight of Canada geese;
and blew back the low, inaudible rollers
in upright, steely mist.

- Elizabeth Bishop, The End of March