Spring on Harbor Island

Osprey

Inlet and salt marsh on Harbor Island

where the beach sand invades the salt marsh

Salt Marsh and Beach South Carolina

Harbor Island The lLow Country

Harbor Island South Carolina                          

On a low country barrier island

where sea tides sweep

         in each day on the sandy beach

through salt marshes

             where long billed willets

and snowy stilt legged egrets fly

where alligators and turtles bask in the mud

grow long and fat

no pity there.

The beach alive with mud snails

And worms that hide

Pelicans ride the wind

sandpipers skitter, sea biscuits wash in

yellow corals torn from sea bed

wave in the wind.

I wonder where they have been

these empty scallop shells, oyster shells

cockle shells, mussel shells—

bits of mystery to me.

The live oaks and long leaf pines

grow tall on what the sea blows in

Spanish moss trails from their limbs

thrive on salty sea winds.

                              --Barbara Spring

Harbor Island South Carolina

Here we are in a restaurant where the walls and ceiling are covered with dollar bills.  Norm is looking out the window at the salt marsh and dreaming of fishing. I'm standing under a harpoon dreaming of Moby Dick.