The way a hammer

for my mother

Once on a swimming beach I saw a soldier
and thought nothing of it until I saw another
then lifeguards, coast guard, a low slow chopper,
and finally a man -- oh surely he's the father --
sinking at the wave edge in the arms of a stranger,
then the helicopter sinking, and in its chop the water
ruffled, smoothed and brightened, the way a hammer brightens copper.