The poem is Motorcycles....

"Motorcycles" illustration from Nancy Standlee for my "Dreams of the Turtle King" beach poem book.


The poem is MOTORCYCLES and the illustration is for a stanza in the poem...

"I hear the motorcycles
rumbling and racing
down A1A ...."

Weekends were a busy time along the beaches for the motorcycle riders. A1A is an old highway that used to be the main travel road along the east Florida coast before I-95 or the Turnpike were built. It is a small, two lane road that winds along the beach for most of the coast. It is crowded with cars, motorcycles, bicyclists, and pedestrians, both local and tourists.

From the beach, you can't always see the road, but  you can hear the traffic, especially those Harleys as they rumbled their way down the road. That sound came to be a part of the overall beach experience for me and would bring a smile as I thought of the riders enjoying the sun and breeze in their own way, at a slightly faster speed than my walks along the sand.