By Wendy Norman

The ocean glistened with the warm sun’s kiss
Waves rippled in the breeze another day of bliss
Sandy shores where dancing sunbeams play
Gazing on sand with mornings brilliant rays

Oxygen atoms infuse restoring breeze
Filled with song of birds hovering over the sea
Seagulls swooped and cried in hungry screech
Lover’s names beseeched from the throng on the beach

Sand cradled by rocks from the surrounding deep
Cool shaded earth seemed formed to be,
A quiet haven to rest from a troubled sea

Whispers in the air brushed skin and made eyes smart and sting
As remembrance of your lips like petal buds open in Spring
Imprints of your smile etched into my bleeding heart
These days created to flood this being with the pain of being apart

Tidal words washed over me to buckle my stride in pain
Sinking gently on the sand as if never to stand again
Consumed with memories my knowledge a dangerous tool of addiction
Moral imperative claims echo as a performative contradiction

Visions of you sink into my Poet’s home
Your brightness a golden bath once known