Selected Works Selected Works

Pacific Vigil

The Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, late afternoon in August. The storm was approximately an hour away. The crepuscular rays — the radiating beams of light that appear when the sun is partially obscured and the atmosphere is laden with moisture — broke through a gap in the cloud to the west and fell almost vertically onto the surface of the water.

The Pacific at this latitude is not the accommodating Pacific of California. The waves run long and dark from open ocean. There are no offshore kelp beds to dampen the swell. The coast here does not offer the reassurance of shallowing water. The light lasted perhaps eight minutes before the cloud closed the gap and the storm arrived.