wildly here

at the edge
of the world

I am 
very
very
small 

There’s the waves
that could take 
me under
The current 
that could sweep
me out to sea
The jellyfish who
could wrap my ankles
The predators
with fins

And yet 
we swim
and bob
up and down
up and down
As if we’re safe

I guess we feel
secure
ensconced on
our concrete
patios
Stranded on our
sandy shores

I guess we’re 
lulled into 
a sense of safety
by the roaring white noise
of the endless waves

I feel glad with
the world behind me
and the wild sea
frothing before me

I might just 
stand here 
fully exposed
and unafraid
bare
in all the essential
ways
before this roaring
giant

Because
I think
there’d be 
no judgement
no recoil
just the endless
tidal push 
and pull

sand
seeping
between toes
salt
sticking between
hair
sun
settling on
shoulders

This place 
bare
wild
raw
teeming 
beautiful

What can I
do here?
Who can I 
be here?
What becomes
of me 
at the sea?

There’s something here
 that unfolds me
peels back layers
gets under my skin
scours off the
excess
calls me out
pushes me back
—an uncertain 
lover

the sun burns
the water swirls

Have I run away?
Or maybe? 
Come back home
It’s hard to tell
in this place
Am I up or down
Here or there
Out or in

Perhaps I simply am

There are things
that burrow and hide
Others that
swim and glide
A place to be noticed 
or perhaps buried 

But maybe
her wildest
secret is 
really this:
monotony

Day after day
tide upon tide
without variance
same dance
over and again
and always 
only in and out
low and high
sun or rain
cloud or clear
she’s here
the same
year after year

How long
have people
been coming?
Have families
first brought 
toddlers
then teenagers
before nursing 
their empty nests?

How many years?

decades
   centuries
              eons

And she’s wildly 
still here

Every morning there’s
a funeral
a bloom of jelly fish 
stranded by the tide

I play tag
with the ocean
all carbonated
and lovely

She’s mellow 
this morning 
reflective
soft
Her lapping waves
gentle breeze
loamy sand
soft

At evening tide
she starts to seem
a little temperamental 
gusty winds
whipping our legs
with sand
flirting with skirt
hems
determined 
to dance 

Sun wanes
casts long 
overbearing shadows
each one
who’s left
intent on squeezing
the last moment 
of the day

She’s impatient 
it seems
for sun to fade
dark to fall
and the 
stars to flaunt 
themselves
again