at the edge
of the sea
on the southwestern shore....
it leads not over the tawny hills
burnished with golden crackling grass
and dotted with cockle burrs....
it doesn't wander the sandy dunes
flirting and playful, chasing
the inconstant breeze....
or seek for shade under the eaves of
crumbled greying bluffs....
and it's not always there....
it shifts and moves --
it rides the tides,
lifting and falling
through crystal night
on sparkling silver waves.....
when the planet aligns
so that moon and fog and earth and sea
are all in agreement....
and with no fanfare --
this rolling fountain of diamonds appears....
to any who come to the shore
and brave their inner silence....
free enchantment....
riches....
secrets revealed....
to those who look....
•
often the moon lies hidden for months on end....
muffled under wooly layers of
marine fog....
wandering the beach,
longing for your appearance....
i wonder....
when my gaze will find
your magic
your glimmering promise....
•
we stand here
all alone,
we think....
encapsulated in our skin....
our thoughts....
yet filled with
whirling energy....
electrons and protons zinging
constantly through our charged bodies....
we glow with hidden life....
we teem with what we cannot see....
like the waters....
the grasslands....
the secret standing woods....
all, even the air
is replete with life
watching us
heads tilted
curious....
but indifferent....
the merest rocky outcropping
propels a thousand lives along their days....
and every moment,
a million possibilities
swirl in our direction....
and still --
there is
longing....
•
have you once looked on
that shifting silver path?
those white-hot sparks
leaping and grouping,
dancing on the cold black liquid below?
have you never pined for it?
and for at least a moment imagined
walking out upon it....
to some undreamt-of future?
standing in the between
of earth and sea and sky....
do you never catch your breath
with the sudden knowledge
that we are as alone
as this glimmering path?
....and as full of dancing sparks....
______________
© 2010
Beth Anne Boardman
(image courtesy andrew.gd)
