The waves they roll
With languid reach
Well up on
The shallow beach
While out to sea
They roil and pitch
To salt the air
With fragrance rich
With mem’ries dear
From childhood clear
When castles rose
Above the sand
And mother’s arms
With gentle grace
Wrapped me in
Her warming brace
Just as this ripple
Ends its leisured pace
Around my shoes
With wet embrace
We make time across the Strait
The ferry carries me
From all that I’ve known
To I know not where
Yet
But that matters not
The where is not there
I’ve left there behind
Moved on
Forward?
Who knows
Not I
Just an hour gone
And I miss parts of it
Already
Like a child’s stuffed toy
Or her comfort blanket
The woman no longer needs
Nostalgia alone soothes adult vulnerability
A bit
I hope I’ve left
All such things
To the past
They have earned
Like tears
That have fallen
Already forgotten
But for the trails
Dried on my cheek
I wipe them away
Little Island of life
Cradled by the rock
Of a stormy shore
Embattled
Protected
Thriving
I arrive at the end
Of a rocky path
Where a beacon indicates
A vast unknown
Beneath a misty guile
But a light of no small promise
Beckons from a distance
My faith tells me
Is surmountable
Perhaps it will be a smooth sail
On a quiet sea
Or a road no less arduous
Than the sharp-stoned path
Which bloodied my feet
Since many miles ago
No matter
The destination seems bright
And beautiful enough
While I have covered greater distances
With less hope
And no small despair
Under a blood red sky
A metaphor
A cliché
I cannot resist
Blood red it is
And so too
This life journey
Heart broken
Love rent
By the loss of one
Outbound and sunrise
Clichés of new beginnings
I remain unchanged
As sea falls back into sea
Prepares for a new assault on the shore
Its hardened rock
Broken but not brittle
Recalcitrant
Beneath the bruised sky
Of abuses relentless
I am reminded
Of the survivors
I came for the storms
For the thrash and hiss
Of the sea upon the rock
The immovable
Resisting the unstoppable
And it is
In a manner
Difficult to describe
So utterly beautiful
And moving
But I wish
In this moment
Only for the peace
Of a clear sky
And an ocean
Becalmed
You walk away
With a crushing finality
Ramrod iron spine
Heels strident clacks
Carom across the concrete
Then at the door
The subtlest glance back
Betrays the display
That is your anger
Now I know
The only moment
More remarkable
Than this departure
Will be your return
I know also
The next time
There will be
No backward glance
But
God
Will I be grateful
For one last chance
I am having
High-order, ill-mannered thoughts
Inconvenient truths
As the saying goes
Understatement that it is
And I have always
Wondered why
Understatement
Doesn’t have a better word
Overstatement has
Hyperbole
Pointed overstatement
An extraordinary word
Understatement
Seems so…
Well
Understated
But I’m lying
Not about understatement
I cannot overstate it
I cannot be hyperbolic
About understatement or lying
But I digress
I dissociate
Because I am lying
About having these
Thoughts
I’m not having them
I mean that emphatically
Which is also a better word
Than understatement
And still I digress
Dissociate
Dis-associate
Because I also most emphatically
Do not want to have them
So I digress
Again
Diverge
Obsess about other thoughts
Any other thoughts
Or no thoughts at all
Even better
Any activity which annihilates
Thought
Television
Computer games
Hours-long arguments
On social media
Irony
Another great word
A device used properly
Only as a hammer on an anvil
I have arguments
About high-order, ill-mannered thoughts
To avoid thinking about
A particular set of high-order, ill-mannered thoughts
But I digress
From my digression
Which speaks to the power
Of dissociation
I dis-associate
From dissociation
But those thoughts
I don’t want to have
They want to be had
They want to be thought
And they’re knocking at the door
Pounding at it really
Against the big metal door
Protecting my consciousness
Like a hammer on an anvil
Even now
I am buttressing the door
Keeping it shut
As it reverberates
I desperately want
To turn on the telly
Play a game
Or open Facebook
Pix to Words 