A Pair of South Carolina Beach Poems

by H.D. Whatley

Sullivan’s Island

I parked my compact German ride
At station twenty-one on Sullivan’s Island.
I walked the narrow path covered in reeds
To the beach where the wind was in command.

The black and white lighthouse towered nearby
While the outline of a container ship lined the sky.
Oh the memories of college days here
Bring a smile to my face and make me feel good inside.

Oh we loved it here so much
That we even came in the winter.
The summer here was really the drug
That Poe wrote about in his story “Gold Bug.”

But now it’s mommas and their bustling little broods
Surfing away on their boogie boards
And a fair amount of young birds in bikinis
Along with old men whose bellies hang over their shorts.

Fernandina Beach

From Charleston we drove south on I-95
Through the state of Georgia, where Mr. Allman ate a peach.
And just past the Florida border
Is a little place called Fernandina Beach.

We stayed in an old Victorian B&B place
Then went to dinner which included a tasty filet
And afterwards we drank with an old salt
Who looked like Ernest Hemingway.

The next morning we had coffee
Before we went to the beach to read
My girlfriend looked great
Her mane of hair was long and red.

Sadly it rained all the next day
Which some would say was bad.
For us it was a blessing
As we made the best of it in bed.

A native of North Louisiana, H.D. Whatley received his B.A. in English from the College of Charleston and his M.F.A. from Hunter College/CUNY. Currently, he teaches English in Tianjin, China.