Beach day

Gulls prod the sand with their strong banana-yellow bills
searching for clams to grapple in their beaks and clamber into the air with.
Letting drop over and over on dark rocks or the blunt sidewalk
the birds coax the shy clams into gently loosening their psuedopod grips that hold shell edge to shell edge
in a tight, oceany heart.
Opened, alive and quiveringin their briny soup
the clams find daylight and the sharp pierce, then tear of erratic gull beaks.
Flesh from the sea to flesh on wing,
soggy clams packed in feathered bellies like wet clay.
Gulls circling and squawking above the quiet beach, through the quiet day.