The moment you decide to dip your toe in, everything becomes clear.
The fog lifts,
the haze dissipates,
and suddenly the weight of your thoughts and pains
is lifted and carried on the backs of millions of tiny atoms
bonded together by fate,
because the universe willed it so when meteors collided
and out of it sprung dirt, wind, flame
and sweet arms of warm velvet,
holding on just tight enough
to keep your head afloat,
your lungs satisfied,
and your heart free from the gut wrenching pangs that earth brings
with its dusty, barren expectations of groundedness,
clarity,
the need for sense making that’s been ground into our skulls
between the mortar of society and the pestilence of giving a fuck
but why bury ourselves under the rubble of stone
when our bodies are made mostly with the capacity to float;
float far away on salty waves,
ebbing and flowing between coasts,
destined to one but drawn to the shininess of the other,
an oxymoron of the freedom trapped on an island between two bodies,
east and west,
hot and cold,
familiar and new,
a balancing act of healing and being frozen in time
with only the very tip of the reality of it visible
while the bulk remains concealed below,
reverberating the songs of all of the other creatures of two worlds,
born of fire and water,
fighting the never-ending battle
of sustenance or love,
creation or fulfillment,
swirling in paths and patterns
that the universe etched long before anyone had a say in the matter
but we must go with the flow, as they say,
because there is nothing better than the sway of the tide
gently tugging your ankles,
willing your toes to unclench the sand
and trust that temptation will satisfy you just enough
to not fully take you and everything you have worked so hard to build,
your sandcastles overlooking a picture perfect life,
endangered by the strife
of never being able to feel the splash of mist
or the caress of wet hair plastered over your face,
and the sweet muffled lullaby rumbling in your inner ear,
whispering,
“You are water and to water you shall return.”
