For the Day

Dawn breaks and gulls shed feathers in the breeze above crisp surf and Helios blinks his bleary eyes, dew gathers on the turf. Some children squabble noisily and cram their buckets full to build their fortress for the day against the tide's slow pull. Then later the oppressive sun retires and with him light, and bugs like embers drift aloft to trees in flecks of white. Cicadas drone their hollow…