I miss you.
I had to start with that so the hands of nostalgia
gripping my neck would loosen ever so slightly.
It has given me the voice to compose this prose,
so onward we go.
I hope you at least remember me.
I know you have many a passenger
a constant stream that
ebbs and flows but never
stops. You always keep them coming back
like my father, even though he has no hope in ever
reaping the benefits of hours spent
alone; him, your colorwondrous expanse, and a stick,
some translucent string the star of the production
with the amphitheater a floating bathtub.
If you put it like that, it sounds laughable.
But it’s not for those who truly know the meaning and depth of
time spent with you.
I hope you know how much I grew because of you.
I learned true fear of the natural world. However, it is a good fear
a fear that stems from respect
respect of roaring waves and territorial tides
the fickle feelings of the sky, the
obsequious haste with which tasks were completed on our vessel
I felt your push while climbing the rat boards to view your deserted oases,
I felt your pull while jibing, unbridled and pouty like a green gelding that wants grass
and isn’t used to a metal bit against his soft tongue and a girth around his warm belly.
We knew not to tempt the fates to cut our strings before we had strutted and fretted.
You love to make things uncomfortable,
but we gain so much from being forced to handle difficulties.
But you,
you shove them down our throats like a mother albatross
feeding her fledgling the leftovers of the afternoon’s catch.
I found parts of myself that would have remained latent if it weren’t for you.
alone, ruminating about la lune et l’étoiles pulling the tides up onto the beach
as if tucking the millions of tiny shattered pieces of shell into bed for the night,
alone, at sunset, the blade of our bow slices through your glass
but not before I find myself in your reflection.
You are the ultimate double-edged sword,
You would be the best con-artist in the world
if you took a human form,
for one second you can scream like a starving screech owl,
and the next be as soothing as a starlingsong slinking lazily through the
summer breeze.
I will not ever forget you.
I give you as many thank you’s
as there are stars in the sky that your blackness allowed
me to learn.