SIMPLE

The tide moves in with a laugh
and out again in a whisper of sorrows.
Our little boats rise and fall on
an oceanic yearning for peace and stability.

Every day brings something changed
and unexpected. A new love,
a departing, a death. Nothing stays the same.

So how do we remain standing when
waves of crushing sadness approach,
the ones that dismantle houses
and alter our destiny?

Or kind, when the fullness of the world
embraces us with open arms, like an infant
rich with talcum-scented trust?

Perhaps the only questions that matter
are these: how do I let go with more grace
and how simple can my life become?

I don’t always remember to be happy.
But I can remember what the child
in me has not forgotten

and to build my home above
the high tide mark on the sacred stones
of that beautiful endeavor.