Flotsam and Jetsam

What kind of dancing ghosts

did you see looking at the fire in the fireplace

when you were a kid?

Burning driftwood – from being soaked in salt water

Made flames a chorus line of ghosts with just a hint of blue.

But this was only discarded lumber--

Jetsam  from ships approaching New York Harbor

Wood skids. Garbage.

Nothing really natural about that.

Forget about the brine--

Maybe the blue flame was from discarded oil soaked into  the planks.

Older: Did you ever see a fire on the beach at night?

“Dune Thirteen” we used to call it.

At night in August sitting by the beach fire –

Holding a can of soda – or your first beer

Staring at that fire you could be warm on the front and freeze on the backside

But by then you were looking at the ghosts dancing

Or maybe at a new visitor to the beach on the other side of the fire

Flotsam from a  teenager's imagination.