But daddy, the water ran away....

While playing on the playas in Baja

Beach stories of a wanderer

There was a strange thing that occurred

The water ran away

I was with my twin 

And one of the two brothers

It just ran away while we were building

A sandcastle for the little guy

Wow, look at that!

It was one of those other things

He did not speak yet

Yet he spoke to us about things

When i looked up 

The water near our spot was disappearing

Towards the mushroom like island

We needed the water for the sandcastle

It was odd to look up and see as far as we could

That the water was gone 

Instead, there was mud

And beached surfers

Who looked quite confused

As well as a few fisherman 

with the boats hitting bottom

What the Hell!

I picked up the little guy

And ran up the stairs 

With my sister trying to get the beach stuff

I told her to hurry

And not to bother

Just get up the stairs

Daddy! Daddy!

screeched two small girl voices

The water ran away!

Look over at the island

There is no water at all

He turned his head

And saw the boats and surfers

Looking stranded with no water

Beneath them and he knew

We were already running up stairs

To change and see were mom 

Was located as she was not in the front room

Dad swished past us

He was screaming 

In a big bold voice

Get out of the water

Get to high ground

Everyone gets off the playas

He had a loudspeaker he was using

And he had the old radio cranked up

It was the one my grandmother 

Had grown up using

It was the first warning system 

For the old community

And he was able to get the authorities 

On the radio while we went further up

To the roof with our little one

Just the two little girls

And one small infant

The other adults were running for the road 

Behind us or climbing 

The other buildings

While my grandmother 

The brave female reporter

Was being carried 

By a few young men

She had fainted when she had seen

The water recedes

She had experienced a number

Of natural occurrences 

Out at the old ranch by the sea

She had thought she was imagining

When she was a young mother

And had just sat there 

With my mother watching

And then when the water

Had come back in with a storms force

Had floated out to the island

Holding on to her toddler

Who never did like the area

Which is why some one 

Has turned it into a pigsty

But that day

We were trapped

By the time dad got off the radio

It was too late

He was stranded on the top floor

And the water was still rising

And rising as he climbed on the roof

As well, only to find us hiding in the widows walk

To view the ships from far afield

Before they even came into port

A woman waiting for her man

Would walk the small perch right on top

Of the house our building

More normal in Maine 

Then Baja but there we were

He came along and tried to get us off

But there was no way down

And no one near by

All that water that had gone out

Had joined half the ocean

And now it was swirling around 

The tops of the houses

Twenty, thirty feet high

He sat down holding each of us under an arm

And the baby in a plastic tub above his head

And waited, and waited not to long

We shifted off the roof quicker 

Then we thought if at all

Screams and screeches

Patient parent was struggling

To stay on board the three-floor house

But we were already swimming

Towards the back house

Which was higher than the front

And we made contact with the roof

Shove up went younger sister

Pull went the plastic tub 

And then dangle 

With my legs around his neck

He had gone below a while ago

Slowly I began to squeeze his chest

Until he began to choke and then spit

Up came his head

Angry as hell but it was only his daughter

He had lost his glasses

But knew they must have found

Something to hold on to 

So, he began to feel around

And up he went over the top 

While she still clung to the edge

After while he got his breath

And found one daughter and one boy

He went back to the edge 

And felt around without his glasses

Until he found he small hands

She was doing pushups

Every few moments 

Her head would surface

And she would spit out water

He had her over the top 

and then crept back to the center

It was not the best spot

An angled roof 

One misstep and off they would go

Sliding right down 

Several stories into the water

Instead, they were found

A few hours later

As Noah's flood had abated

The water dropped down to normal level

And a voice in his head said 

Over and over again

It's okay now

No more water

The infant in the plastic tub

Was being held on top of dad's head

And he was way off the ground

Like a Buddha

A man sitting on top of a roof

With two mermaids holding each arm

And a water-resistant tub on top of his head

Finally, his wife's voice got through 

Get the hell off the roof!

She was found clinging to a palm tree.

She was not going to discuss

The day she thought the world had turned upside down.

Nor was the guy sitting in thier parking lot.

Willing to abandoned ship.

But he was a little way too far to push it back.

He just stood there on its bow 

And bellowed at everyone as if they were crew.

While the rest were seeking their belongings

One small boy was wondering 

Why he had not followed his sisters

Instead of deciding to discover 

What secrets the rocks held

Along the coastal Bahia

He found there was an underground

Cavern he could swim in by himself

But would never be able to tell them

As he was just learning to babble

The other little guy 

Just wanted to put down 

Away from the big blue sky

And swirling water

If he could speak

He would not be making happy noises.