I’m in Australia, or somewhere at the beach
where people speak differently. I’m with a group
of people, we split into two groups + I go with one.
I’m playing in the group I’m in, but it starts to rain
and everyone I’m with gathers their things
and leaves. But a big, liked woman leaves something.
I pick it up + take it to where both
groups of people have joined again. We are
sitting in some type of special booth. No one is
talking to me much, it turns out I did something
wrong when I got the lady’s stuff. I look out
the window to see where the breakers are
crashing and the gulls are vying for food,
and the big voice says, “Where gulls vie for sand. ”
Robert Wooten does hold an MFA in poetry from the University of Alabama (1998) and earned an MA in English with a creative writing focus at North Carolina State University (1994).