Where the Sea Receives You

Here where the land releases its claim

and the earth simply stops being earth,

the water takes you in its vast and indifferent embrace

and teaches you the first true lesson of the sea,

that you were never as large

as you believed yourself to be.

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The bow cuts forward through the swelling blue,

and the world behind you softens

into something you struggle to hold onto,

a smudge of shoreline

surrendering to distance

until it is gone entirely.

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How generous the horizon is,

always pulling ahead,

always promising something

just beyond the reach of seeing,

and how willingly we follow

as if we were born for exactly this.

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The water speaks in the only way it knows,

slapping against the hull,

rising and falling beneath you

like something alive and breathing,

something that has always been waiting

for you to find your way here.

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Out here the sky doubles itself in the deep,

and you sail between two infinities,

neither above nor below

holding anything against you.

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And when the evening comes burning down

across the open water,

and the last light sets the sea ablaze,

and the whole world goes still

except for the vibration of the vessel beneath you,

you understand at last

what it means to be small

and how that smallness

is the most beautiful thing

you will ever be.