my ocean piece for my friend......

Maybe the crisp clear awareness
I feel at the beach comes because
of the ocean I carry inside me.
For I can no longer deny its presence.

The waves that have washed and
rocked my insides since childhood.
The tides that are pushed and pulled
by both moon and man.
The water that can soothe
as well as freeze.
The depth of the ocean inside me
roars upon my heart today.

The tsunami comes at night
rising higher and higher,
screaming of your passing.
Pulling me under,
tumbling me over and over
through the pain and the fear.
Over and over the good memories
and the bad.
Tossing me through the unfinished story
between us.

Morning comes.
And the tsunami subsides.
I go about my day,
filling the ocean with my tears,
tasting the salt on my lips.
A gull flies overhead.
A starfish lands at my feet.
A dolphin jumps among the waves
and my heart leaps.

I remember the vastness of it all.
Hope fills my heart.
Tossing the starfish back into the water,
I bid you goodbye.

Pressing my toes into the sand,
I move forward and bless this flow
called Life.