Sand Castles

I have a photo of you,
squinting in bright sundown
next to the big sand castle
we built on Clearwater Beach.

That castle took hours.
It took buckets
full of wet white sand,
and we poured it
and shaped it
into minarets and towers,
arches and battlements
on wide round walls,
until our hands were raw,
our necks burned red

and then the sun went down.
I took a photo of you with our castle,
a snapshot to record our sweat and work
and as the last light sunk into the gulf,
we packed up our things
and you kicked our castle down.