Ocean

Oceans

Holding my finger with his pudgy hand shows his trust in me as we skip in a most carefree manner across the scorching sand towards the water’s edge.

I have played my childhood here in these waters that skirt the edge of Louttit Bay

My arthritic knees sport bumps from days trying to ride my surfboard out the back of the breaking waves into where the sand and water meet

Shading my eyes, I see for miles.

The hazy horizon in the distance captures my vision

I see nothing, or what might seem to many as nothing

I see rolling waves, pushing, and pulling saving me from my uncertain self

daring me to boldly create a new me

one built using the energy of each set rising towards me

then ebbing

pulsing with a crunch against the grit between my toes.

Toppy feels the air most perfectly where the sea meets the sand

The ripple of salt laden foam criss crosses teasing hints of old sea shanties

For my Pisces child

This is his nature’s remedy

for those times when he struggles

Smothered

Gasping to

Push the stale air through

Relief will come

Not in tidal waves or tsunamis

But rather in wrinkly bubbles tickling his toes

Bringing special squeals of delight

His childhood spent too chasing dreams in the surf

Girls on the beach

Paddling as far as possible behind the breaking waves

Racing back to shore, nose burnt with salt and sun

Calling me to look, to watch, to see him in this place that also belongs to him

This is a place that holds the hearts of those who drown in her beauty

It is our sea, one that faces the strength of the great southern ocean