Coastline of My Mind by Mona Mehas
a mob of gulls fills the dark sky under the new moon
they sing a sermon in the air words rearranged on wings
the sky breathes in time as waves lash onto the shore
I am alone at water’s edge toes in the sand
images form in my subconscious of pain and scars
the hurt determines who I am
‘I feel your pain’ is more than a breezy sound byte
echoed by the lighthouse in the distance
waves lap at my feet with abandon
healing light projected from my third eye
destroys the monster hiding in the shadows
sandcastles wash away
this reflection of myself upon the water
reveals no goals, no plans, no surprises
cloud cover hides all my wildness
like a prism exposing multi surfaces and colors
elements of water prance and play off each other
the ink-black birds turn to gray
no matter my perspective or mood or energy level
I’ll build my life on the coast just to see it topple
repeat with variation
the sky still breathes as waves crash the shore
on the beach I contemplate my aloneness
at the cool edges of the day
“This poem placed third in in a category of the MA State Poetry Society contest, 2024. The subject was “a magical journey to an enchanted place” I’d just written this poem not long before and hadn’t sent it anywhere. Usually if you win a state contest they publish the poem somewhere but the person I contacted in Massachusetts said they don’t publish the winning poems at all. Now it’s kind of stuck in the middle of out there but not out the’re. Not published, but not exactly unpublished. I hate to think Coastline of My Mind will be left out.”
Mona Mehas (she/her) writes poetry and prose from the perspective of a retired disabled teacher in Indiana USA. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared in Paddler Press, IHRAM Literary, Big Windows Review and others. Her poetry, Questions I Didn’t Know I’d Asked and Hand-Me-Downs (LJMcD Communications) and Self-Centered (Bottlecap Press) are available now. Mona is Editor-in-Chief of Cicada Song Press and President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. She is searching for a home for her first novel while writing a novel in verse. https://linktr.ee/monaiv https://monamehas.net