Padre Island Remembrances

Betsy Joseph

March 1, 2026

Feeling somewhat like a tourist

in my own life,

I sat on my haunches

in the early August sun

while observing my two sons

then ages six and three

navigate the sandy beach

with their plastic pails and shovels

oblivious to the detritus

along the shoreline

and simply delighted with their finds:

broken seashells,

empty soda cans,

garlands of sea algae

which they draped around their necks

as if young warriors

in a coming-of-age ceremony.

The scene looked foreign to me.

I recalled the pristine sandy stretch

conjured from long ago

now missing, now replaced

by eroding shoreline and a smell

more dank than salty.

My sons saw only treasures

and embraced all the wonders

in their version of paradise.

They missed nothing.

Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems that have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron.

Swash Zone

Vincent Hostak

March 1, 2026

A creature burrowing in shore sand

has no impulse to hide from you.

It’s a coincidence that you should have passed

to gaze upon its minute drama.

It’s holding fast to its shaky ground

just below the uprush and backwash,

evading a thumping, minding its meter,

then poking up like a word you lost.

Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living with his family and faithful canine, Lola, near the Front Range of Colorado. His recently published poems are found in the journals The Dewdrop (Vanessa Able, Editor-In-Chief), Sonder Midwest, The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and the Texas Poetry Assignment.  His contributions also appear in the anthologies The 30th Annual Poetry Ink Anthology (Moonstone Arts, Philadelphia, 2025), Lone Star Poetry, and The Senior Class-100 Poets on Aging (Lamar University Press, Laurence Musgrove, Editor). His podcast on classic and contemporary poetry, and the novel ways it reaches audiences, relaunches in 2026.