Barrier Island

What weighs down this sandy wisp
between a bay and ocean
is not a causeway, not the press
of footed towers, nor the tread
of bare and browning bathers
on its narrow, wet, khaki-colored beaches --
It is the weight of air, cloudless, clear
but heavy air, blue in the depths,
that arches overhead;
and it is the sizzle of minor surf
along the island's edges,
dampening sand, to stick upon the sea
like a licked stamp upon a letter.
The men, roads, and condos all may seem
to wrest control from nature and its weather;
but, we, who've spent some years here,
know better.