Walking Along the Shore

(For Emily, my Muse)

A crazy surf was raging up the beach from out at sea,
Hurling bits of weed and wood and lumps of wild debris.
Parts of smashed up fishing boats, sections of old signs,
All the things you’d rather see intact at calmer times.

A counterpoint came into view, two lovers crossed the sand,
Leaning into strengthening wind, they struggled hand in hand.
She a tall young woman, he an older male,
Not the kind of couple you’d expect in such a gale.

The forces that perform the task of grouping things together,
Can chop and change and mess about as madly as the weather.
Piles of broken bits of things, amassed upon the shore,
Perhaps the couple that you saw were merely two bits more?

As they moved on further, their shapes now quite unclear,
The ocean spray, on such a day, obscured and interfered,
Creating strange illusions, and mysteries of light,
Causing you to doubt the things, you thought you had in sight.

Curious, but mindful of not wanting to seem rude,
You followed down the pair of tracks, that in the sand they drew.
But as you neared the beaches end, where sand gave way to rock,
The pair of tracks had merged to one, before it made a stop.

You cast your gaze about you, as you strained to understand,
Where had the couple gone to, while all about was sand?
For nobody had told you, you never could have known,
The couple on that stormy beach were ghosts on their way home.

Cursed by spell for daring to diverge from norms so proud,
The people called the magus and right there before the crowd.
The sorcerer performed a rite and when he left for home,
A dreadful fate befell the pair and they were turned to stone.

Trapped together in the rock and firmly held in place,
They’re free to walk across the beach and see each other’s face.
Just once in every decade when the wind disrupts the sand,
He looks at her with kindly eye and offers her his hand.

A million, million fallen tears will never ease their pain,
Those sad forbidden lovers, as they cross the beach again,
To join as one within the rock and wait for ten years more,
When on a stormy winter’s day they’ll walk along the shore.

(10.10.23)