I cannot be a life buoy
But show you how to swim
When to float on Spring tide
To catch the next wave in
I'll make quick work of sunrise
Point you to due East
By night you'll sail across the stars
The farthest lands to greet
The undersea mere curiosity
Of shadows lurking, cold
Shudder off the thought of it
Just keep your head afloat
Beauty of holding
Breath expelled
Quick succession
Balloon fills its girth
Hearts beat like hooves
On cup day
Tension mounts
Truth like a pin prick
Bursts as flaccid pieces
Fall gently at four feet
Questions at ease
Posed so handsomely
Hold hands and jump
Into a sea of soliloquy
Knowing who one wants to be
Wayfaring strangers are we
How to play the long game
With someone well versed
In flash fiction?
Do I promise to love their every lover?
Desire drives the narrative on.
How to salvage a life come undone?
When moving parts are irreplacably human
Healing work is painful and long
Until two bodies borrow, become one.
Time wears down
Toughest
Ancient lines
Layers, pillars
Crumble
Force of waves
Cold infiltrates
Slightest grain
Marine fossils
Tonnes tumble
Return to sea
Once again
Hesitant
Tentative
When the hurt is all you had left
Step into grove of golden flowers
Tread the path that leads
To roaring waves defending sea
Hear the words fall upon soft ground
Mingling with memories of another
Gently lapping morning tide
Safe harbour sunlit, teeming with new life
Steer your own way out
Return to me, steady turn of rudder
Double back if your heart is sore
Come alongside save rocky shore.
Something more than
Daily chores
Paralysis upon waking
People, places, beings
Something in the way
Of feelings
Daily trifles melt like jelly
Vast continents, time and space
Forces crushing, melting, drifting it all away
Temporary angst
A sense of wonder remains
In the kindness of strangers
Yet marvel at how a best friend, lover, partner
Can become less than a stranger
In a day
Some people collect people
I collect shells
Beach treasures are beautiful
Even when we don't know what they are.
People are beautiful even when we don't know who they are.
I find it hard to know who is a friend
Until they show me
One way or another
Still, I believe in them
Even when they don't show up.
I believe I need to believe in me before I place so much belief in another.
If mine is the heart in whom I trust.
How can one treasure
Empty rooms, plates, faces?
We prefer them filled.
Yet attune space with nothingness.
It is teeming with invisible life.
Things we don't see nor understand.
We require something to magnify it.
How well we occupy
Vast spaces of ocean crescent moon beaches
Even the desert is densely populated.
With hardiest plants and creatures.
Content in their remote obscurity.
Venture into spaces as yet unknown.
Capture its essence like tintype.
Still, it seems, though ponderous.
Hushed waves from afar burst onto shore.
Roaring white noise as foam
Between toes, tickling.
Wherever you go to seek space
Bring it back, as a treasured poem
To dwell inside for all of life.
Couples and overseas interlopers
Tread, stoop or jog up
Labyrinthine stairwell
Overseen by rock god overlords
Never impressed by one
Occasional lack of breathlessness.
Many seasons of being
Watched by militant mob
Now I take pride in
How exhausted, fire stoked
Flame faced, perspirated
No shame in it.
I am alive.
Doing what I love
With those who are deserving of mine.
Notice the semblance of
Heart shaped whitewash
Caused by triple sets of dumping waves.
Sometimes, heart-rending pain
Is the way out
To float away
On carefree days.
More so than
The breaking of bread
It's the gentle tap of rain on tin roof
That turns into a gale
While two souls gently unfurl
Tummies full of soup
Grateful for gables to collect drops
As hopes, fears and dreams swim in the air.
Steamy plunge of tannins
Soaking in tea cups
Stories waft like mist
On cold winter mornings
As moody songs fill the silent space between two beings.
Wild wings of wind pick up frothy tips of waves and cast them off in spray.
Wow, we proclaim.
Shed our outer skin to soak in deep ocean.
No words needed.
A watershed moment.
Count the stars of heaven 