The Ocean and the Man

I sat beside the ocean to speak to the coming tide

But she was in conversation with the land when I had tried

And I forgot my language on that broadening frontier

And I stopped what I was saying and started then to hear

As silently the pebbles on the shore would ask the sea

What it was like for her to embrace fluidity

The ocean would reply with a cosmic roaring voice

And then realize her movement was not accepted now by choice

So the waves began to wail and weep doing what she did best

And her tears were on the shoreline and her tears were on her crest

And the golden shore received her when she saw her saddened state

And she soaked up her salty tears and so soaked up her fleeting fate

And what I witnessed in this love was something that I hadn’t yet before

For the ocean was the ocean and the seashore was the shore

And I was man, but I had tried to make myself a shape

And the shape was shaped to fit this world and the world was shaped by hate

And thus my conversation with the ocean had begun

For she had asked an honest question in a time when I had none

And I had to answer her with love for she had asked me now as such

And I loved that chilling silence though I had never loved so much

So the ocean taught with questions and gifted me new life

Shaped now by the life I had misshapen once or twice

But if she could be an ocean and if the shore could still be sand

Than I could be a sinner and I can be a man