Early Morning Reflections

Like this end of the ocean
endlessly breaking
on the rocks where hungry seabirds watch and wait
my heart whenever I
remember how my mother
looked there at the last
before the lid was latched

Round the harbour rowing in the calm between
the dying of the land breeze
and the borning of that from the sea
I see how thin the barrier really is
between the shielding islands
when the tide is high and the gaps deepened
so the bruising waves are barely gentled

Half the year being hurricane season
like the seabirds we can only watch and wait
and like dream people chafe and fret
though it was never ours no not a blessed bit of it
but our little protections stand out in our minds
as endlessly we ponder and reflect upon
the unrelenting beauty of the whole damn thing.

8 September 2021
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca