wild , western , cowless , cower less man as i sat lone on the ragged beach , surrounded by sand and rock , upon a piece of driftwood about my own size , with my hat on my knee , my head in my hands so that my eyes were fixed on what was in that moment the highest point of tide , with a tilt of my head upward so the heat of the sun absorbed from the nape of my neck to the bald of the top of where my hair once wasafter time had passed and the tide had riseni saw a horses ear cut through the water .