The Echo Tide

I said farewell to the ocean
Throwing myself in his forceful embrace
In a fit of passion and bereavement
Kissing the foam from his white-capped face
He pulled me deep
Battering me with gray and blue
Before spitting me back
Like lovers do
Though I was yet a maid
But still I pay my vows
From the desolate sand I crawled
To firmer land, wandering out
Into the plains, unto a place
I cannot know
Where the tide cannot find me
Where the ships cannot go
Where the raindrops always run
From home to the coast
Like secret spies
Betraying their host
And I am alone
Staggering on spent feet
Wincing at the ghost current
Rolling the wheat,
Stopping in shock
As cicadas swell… and ebb… and swell…
Like roaring waves keep time
I find his handprints here as well
Under the wide sky
Stretching end to end
Over the mirror fields
Around one earthen body it bends

I sing myself an ancient lullaby
I sing it new every day
…to soothe the ache
…to keep the ghost at bay
…to rejoice in the infant sun

I tell myself the world is new,
Perhaps somehow I can be too

When the salt is off my lips.