Can ruin your beach day

Heading for a picnic at Crane Beach, in Ipswich, Mass.

Photo by Thomas Steiner

“When faced with anything I loathe and fear

I try to grit my teeth and persevere,

But there’s one gritty thing I just can’t stand —

A sandwich that is halfway full of sand.’’

— From “Words Within Words,’’ by Richard Wilbur (1921-2017), New England-based poet