I used to like the taste of sand
The bright blue water on my hand
The footsteps of the lost (still there, by a strand)
Before the waves washed them away
The birds were restless on that day
Skittering, flocking, chattering away
The sky was sagging – sheepskin gray
Grieving was the land

Clouds were spun and whisked and dried
Of all their tears as the beach cried
The sand dollars had all withered and died,
Safe and small to the end
And so I ask: is it hard to spend
A day to weave, a day to mend?
When I said that the fish had no need for a friend,
I must confess that I lied

And there, on that day on the silent beach,
Further out did my soul reach
But it never flew, didn’t grab, didn’t leech
From the ocean of warmth that reared high
I would like to say I remembered the sky
But the memories twist – the laughter will lie –
And forget, and forget, and forget did I
My thoughts that did beseech

That oysters, clams, and mussels did sway
In the foam of the water, in the shallows that day
Upon broken sand, sea creatures did lay
When they died, the earth buried them deep
Something wild woke from its cursed sleep
Centuries of seaweed the waves did reap
It’s hard to save these memories to keep:
The waves keep washing them away