Sketch

Carl Sandburg

THE SHADOWS of the ships   
Rock on the crest   
In the low blue lustre   
Of the tardy and the soft inrolling tide.   
 
A long brown bar at the dip of the sky       
Puts an arm of sand in the span of salt.   
 
The lucid and endless wrinkles   
Draw in, lapse and withdraw.   
Wavelets crumble and white spent bubbles   
Wash on the floor of the beach.         
 
      Rocking on the crest   
      In the low blue lustre   
      Are the shadows of the ships.