I met a girl once,
she was half German and half Polish
our encounter was short but sweet.
She taught me that all bad people are merely
good people
on a strange path
and all saints are just secret-keeping sinners.
She taught me that travel is stupid
because you'll only ever learn that
everyone is exactly the same
in different clothes with different accents
and different bathroom habits
but, at the end of the day
all everyone wants is a good fuck and a hot meal
and a cool drink and a cuddle
and to love their spouse and children
that's really all.
We talked about everything
for hours and hours
but on the last day, she told me about the ocean.
And, she told me
that she sometimes sees the ocean as a quilt of belonging
"ivory infinity," she called it, "folding over and over itself."
and other days, she sees it as
a silver specter of regret
and she watches a thousand pretty seashells get thrown into its pretty face
with only gagged bubbles for protest.
