Absolution

Kick off your shoes, race across the damp sand

Wade in past your toes, ankles, knees, and hips

Joints may be stiff, but for the child inside

Jumping waves is still muscle memory

You’ve seen sunlight kiss the sea many times

And it always awakens hidden hopes

It’s the embrace of perfect unity

Purest illumination finds refuge

In a partner who has nothing to hide

We stare because such a bond eludes us

For even children harbor dark secrets

Within the mud they clench in stubborn fists

From our youth we see that which we can’t have

Still we search for such closeness everywhere

Of a soul’s transparency set ablaze

In places where we can empty ourselves

Into sacred pools of water on fire

To be washed clean again, forsaking shame

So love won't have to hold us at arm's length

But there is no immersion that can save

Only a sign for those who can see it

To seek a true source of absolution

Cleansing not our skin, but the blood beneath

Tell me, what do you hear in light’s laughter

As it plays on the cresting wave’s surface?

A calling to look a little closer

Or a joy that’s mirroring its maker’s?

What do you see in your own reflection

Just before the eruption of sea foam

Roars in your ears and consumes you in white?

A reminder of the you who once was

Or a fleeting glimpse of who you could be?