ONCE UPON A BLACK SAND BEACH

One afternoon I sat alone and watching waves roll into sand

Along this quiet Costa Rican beach there was no one at hand

My solemn mood was broken when in the distance I saw a silhouette

Steadily towards me came a man or woman which I knew not yet

Along the tidal salted path there were two figures it would seem

A women and a rather large feline companion made up the team

Where comes the lady with the cat, where is it that she goes

She sees me yet continues, thinking perhaps I’m someone that she knows

I decide to stay the course and simply watch her move along her way

But I wonder as senorita nears what it is that I should say

Her long dark hair is braided, an orange bikini & sarong wrapped ‘round her waist

And of all odd things this spotted yellow cat beside her nimbly paced

Nearer now, its long & lithesome tail searching and ‘round her legs it slips.

Entranced, my eyes followed the woman walking with rhythmic swaying hips

Around her graceful brown neck there hangs a chain and cross of gold

Between her ample breast it lay like favored memories of old

She fingered the cross and as she neared me gazed into my eyes

Her beauty in this moment, on this beach, alone with me the odds defy

Buenos dias was all she said and any clever come-back I certainly forgot

For all that I could think to say was that, “I like your ocelot.”

She forced a timid smile and past me walked the lady with her spotted cat

And the moment of a lifetime for this smooth traveler vanished, just like that

I later inquired of her at the cantina but no one seemed to know

The hombres laughed, said if they did, they would not tell a loco gringo

In the years gone by, I’ve thought of things I could or should have said

But then these couplets would not have been so short ‘n sweet I dread.