Sand and Foam

"I am forever walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam.
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain
Forever"
 
Khalil Gibran
 
***
 
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised the world is a harder place than I imagined it should be.
 
Reality always had more substance than the stuff of dreams.
 
Clearly defined and unyielding as if bolts and bars were set between us…
 
and perhaps they are,
 
but in my dreams,
 
my thoughts just shift and flow around them
 
like the sea around castles in the sand,
 
and they always find you.
 
*
 
I dreamt of you last night.
 
Again.
 
And in the morning thoughts of you greet my day.
 
*
 
Why should I think of you so much
 
or so much of you?
 
I try to honor the silence you seek in distance,
 
but that denies the longing in me to hear you speak.
 
Perhaps one day we shall meet,
 
here along the shore
 
where the sand meets the foam
 
and your presence shall be as alive to me as the salt air,
 
and your words as the waves caressing the shore.
 
Surely,
 
every tide that goes out must come in again and we can at last sit as friends –
 
if never more,
 
certainly,
 
none the less.
 
*
 
I’ve often wondered watching the gulls wheeling above the waves
 
if you ever think about me
 
as you walk along your stretch of shore
 
by that vast gulf which separates you from me?
 
I may never know…
 
But as for me,
 
in my heart,
 
there were two sets of footprints in the sand that walked along the surf
 
and what the waves have washed away may appear again,
 
surely as the sun, the wind and the waves…
 
and the smile of a friend,
 
on another walk,
 
another day.
 
And as in my dreams
 
the wind will be at our backs
 
and your smile shall warm my face like the sun
 
as we dance midst the sand and the foam.