A Tan and Sandy Silence


The sea breeze died
As if someone dialed it down.
Flags fell limp
The sea oats just wavered,
No longer whipped to submission in the dunes.
Cotton clung, sour now, cloying,
No longer dried with the late afternoon wind.
Gull cries now everywhere
No longer part of the day's static.
All that remains
Is a deafening lonely scream, mine,
and a tan and sandy silence,
Without you in it.

There was a breath not taken,
And a breath held.
Months pregnant with words,
And the tiny blood cuts
Of ten thousand knives.
Of the breath of time, lives
Of love - hissing,
Leaking out into cold,
bleak space.
thrown away,
released.

Like a rabid puppy no longer viable.
salvageable, worth the effort.
Released to the needle, put down.

I set at this sea.
And see your last stride in my mind.
A turquoise dream dropping over the rise.
Leaving only the sand
And the crash-swish nourishing kisses
That wash the sand of your steps away
Leaving me
A tan and sandy silence.