With a leg-cross
onto his skateboard,
he cropped himself
from the mirage.
No longer afraid
to be discovered
by the pale
shiny people who
populated the beach,
bleaching the oasis
with their sunscreen,
he became
three-dimensional
again, solid enough
to hear the rustle
of summer leaves.
When his mother
called, he tried
to explain to her
how he could depart
instantly from places
when they no longer
seemed real: the city,
the lakeside, the closeness
of today, leaving behind
not so much a shadow
as a doorway open to
interpretation.