You asked me to write a poem
So I've gathered these pebble memories
like colored
stones and shells
on the sandy
beach
And sorted them by shape
And arranged them by smoothness
and by the sound
they make
when held to
the ear...
The fear I felt
is gone
I open my heart
And write you this poem...
The sun glistened
prickly
like the stone
we sat on
Pressing a permenent impression
into my mind
The tidepools rocked
the ocean cradle
of life
Stagnant pools, cribs
Biding for the tide to turn
to wash the
adolescence
to be parents
with children
to return to
the sea
Around like the day
life ebbs
waxes and wanes
comes in on
the tide
and dries and
dies in the sun
The lawn of seaweed
blanketed the
beaches of stone
And flea like creatures
sprinkled and
sprung
like sea spray
washing the sand
The crabs on land
scuttled and
scurried
only a whisper
as they wisk
and skitter
under a stone
I may have known they were crabs
but they were
never there
The memory and what I feel
was the only
thing
that was real
The stoney beach
grey stones
reach
high to the
sky
Holding us rough
like a dragon's
palm
curled in those
claws
afraid they
will close
and swallow
us without a qualm
I prepare myself for the journey
of sitting still
I was filled with sharp smoke
and it stung
like salty sea
I sputtered and coughed
But controlled the panic
and clutched
it in my lungs
and waited while
it washed me
And it was at that moment that I knew
that I was able
to drown
My thoughts tumbled
and wrestled
and struggled
to be born and
live
a chemical induced
labor
But I was silent instead
I was gone
And I was here
all at the same
time
Warily, we watched the water rise
crash and splash
between the
crevices and cracks in the rocks
that rippled
still
like folds in
cloth
I was afraid of falling into the froth
It wasn't the height
or the waves
or the rocks
But I worried I would wrap
the woven woollen
waves around me
I would lay low under lapping ripples
and allow those
crashing waves
to be my casket,
my sleeping place
I would become those waves
I would become that ocean
I would become this planet
and leave my
human life behind
in favor of
a new home
within the home
I live in
This is just what I feared...
of letting go...
(Wed Aug 28, 1996) |