Shark Eye Shell

Each wave moves its energy in ellipses

and united, they roll a wide body of water

closer. In a ferment of parts,

they break their white noise louder,

they unsettle the stones.

We walk beyond the perish of groynes,

we stalk the gulls' own shoreline

and passing the erosion 

of our own internal landscapes,

we let go of ancient words.

We discover a brined bone - my rib,

I tell you, an offering for a distant man

who discarded my sacrifice here. 

I hold up an empty shark eye shell 

and listen to it, pretend 

I hear hymns of whale song. 
 

I say, 

now that the wind and spray 

have baptised our faces

we can go back, can't we,

washed up, anew,

as if we were strangers.

We can make-believe it's Sunday,

when the silence is only the pause

before we begin again,

we can concoct our own stories

to explain away everything:

this is how the oceans assemble

and reassemble their own religions.

Image is from wikimedia commons: 

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ricardo_Verdugo_Landi_Looking_for_Shells_on_the_Beach.jpg