About 20 years before
The air, it seemed on fire
Engulfing the West End towers
Their glass and steel alight
As if caught in amber
An atmosphere of amber
A moment like this one
When I first awakened
To my connection
To everything
A moment like this one
When I first awakened
To my connection
To everything
The will to live
Or the will to not die
Courage or fear
(I’m unsure which)
Drives them to the beach
Lungs filling with salt water
Muscles spent
Energy exhausted
I dance along the roly poly
Climb and dive and swerve and wiggle
Ocean by my side
Land rising and falling beneath my tires
I hear the roil of white noise
Waves crashing through the broken rock
Source obscured and muffled by darkened boughs
Clinging thickly to rising land
I realize
The beauty that is the world
The perfection that it is to live
Even without clarity
Certainty or conviction
There was the great sea of hope
Dashing upon the rocks
Settling in little pools
Where intrepid molecules linked
Carbon to carbon
With oxygen and hydrogen
Humans evolved
The mind to identify
The harshest conditions
Still, I always wonder
What’s on the other side?
What is the next valley like?