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.