Salted inner sea
Perturbed not at all
By even a breeze
Offers its peaceful cradle
To the failing sun

Salted inner sea
Perturbed not at all
By even a breeze
Offers its peaceful cradle
To the failing sun
In the valley
An empty basin
But for lingering salt
Where once a lake
In the sky
A saltless sea
Atmospheric bounty
Held aloft by the winds
I lose myself in the sea
In the sounds of the waves
Breaking against the rocks
And the subtler susurrus
Of foamy water
Climbing then falling
The shallow sandy shoreline
The tiny boats
I make from the thoughts
I no longer want to have
Recede with the dying waves
To be consumed by the surf
I prepare more
With all the parts of me
I never asked for
Or cannot be rid of
And watch as they glide gently
Into roiling oblivion
I am free
For the duration
Of an ebb tide
Soon enough
The flood comes
The inexorable sea
Returns them all to me
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
Behind me
The wake of my journey
All froth and churn
As I labour
To leave
To forget
Ahead of me
The wake of the moon
All sparkly possibility
As I awaken
To hope
To purpose
I follow
The land’s flow
Over swell
And hollow
This sea of soil
Calls out to
Hard men
Sailors of
The grasslands
Content to be at sea
Gentle seas
Jagged peaks
Sky in turmoil
So go
The many layers
Of I
Hold the tiller fast
As grey gulls surf
The unseen wave
Leeward of the mast
And I at peace
In my dead reckoning
Far between the harbours
Of duty and burden
Riding the tide of release