Poetry Collection

92

The sea waves reach up to touch her feet,with which she sweeps them away, and now at last my tears start to flow. She takes me into her arms,she holds me tight, we embrace each other, I feel her heart beating against mine, it's too late, she says softly, too late to beg for forgiveness, or only just in time, I can tell by the way she laughsand smiles at me with a sudden love of all that comes before us, there is no more pity and reproach in those eyes, there isonly resignation and acceptance, if this must be so. She kisses my face and hands one last time, then takes her final leave of me as the waves rush in again, they are calling her home to them now, she knows it well,she can see them out there beyond the dark horizon that stretches ahead like an endless vista of hopelessness, she can hear their voices as they sing sweetlyto her of a life without us, where no one will miss or remember any of this,and in those words I feel despair and loss swell up inside me so suddenlyI know she's right and I'm wrong.

The sun sets while we sit on the beach. She has put a blanket over my lap and rests her head on my shoulder,my arms around her, and our tears fall into each other's hair. We don't say much for awhile. We listen to the ocean and the waves washing back and forth upon the shore. After a long time, though,she looks up at me from beneath her lashes,almost shyly now, and says,"You've had your last chance."