Why the ocean speaks

Once, I understood
(before the years piled on)
leaving me in mid-life, bereft

the ocean seems empty and endless
but it’s an illusion
a paradox

who knows why the water is so compelling?
maybe it resonates within us,
speaks to the place
buried deep in our DNA
to those simple cells
that called the water home

maybe the ocean yearns for us
like our bodies yearn
for a lost limb
aching for the piece that’s gone

I’m exploring the shape of infinity
(it’s not enclosed)
it’s wide open
it’s the vast, unfathomable blue
of an ocean stretched across the globe

it contains every bit of us
including our arrogance
ground to sand beneath the waves