Abandoned machinery
and memory
mark this stretch
of beach cliff
unsafe. Hillsides
wave still
with mustard plants,
yellow-yellow-green.
No young
mustard leaves
for us
for thirty years
at least.
Refinery employees
for decades
watched migrating whales
from this same spot,
let hydrocarbons leach
into the paths we walk.
Only the roots of weeds now
make amends.