Manzanita

A big windstorm blew a massive tree trunk onto the beach. Looks like the stump of a redwood to me. After a good rain falls, the tree’s wet wood takes on the reddish glow of a slow flame. When the full sun appears in a dry blue sky, the wood turns grey and withers, throwing off splinters like wiry strands in an old man’s beard. In case you didn’t know, I’m standing with sand in my shoes on the windswept Oregon coast.