Saltwater Traces
by Michael Doyle

Looking out from the edge of the ocean's shore
There is a vast expanse we've yet to explore
We know so little about our Mother Ocean
And yet, fools like me are filled with devotion

Limited as we are by human perceptions of length
Breadth, time, and space, and believe in our strength
But measure it as so little against the pounding waves
And are so quickly taken to our humbled graves

The salt in our blood, sweat, and in our flowing tears
Link us to the oceans through all of mankind's years
And as we gaze out feeling calm and yet reflective
There are so many colors and emotions in this perspective

All of which adds up to patches of sunlight and shadow
Each is a reminder of how little it is that we truly know
I am often baptized by these feelings of windswept emotion
Dancing along the shore on my board along Mother Ocean

There is something of majesty mixed with torrid brutality
Life felt and kept, in its repetitions of immortality
Kept in a scale that stands outside our human contemplation
But with every moment, I feel nothing less than fascination

Dipping my toes from the sands into the shallows of the sea
I find myself knowing only a little of touching eternity
There is a beginning without an ending and an ending that begins
I feel in my hair when the saltwater traces it with the winds

(c)April 24, 2024    Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved