A Cinquain Series

Sunk in Coarse Sand

This time I will stay — a response to the Lark poetry competition — runner-up poem

Sitting Sunk in coarse sand Gazing far past the beach How did I leave this mystic place To reach

To reach Such long journeys To very distant plains Running from the dark and tense days Of youth

Of youth Its stern reproach Everything held so dear Hanging on some awkward balance In fear

In fear Insanity Standing in the hallway Expectations unrelenting Til when

Til when The day would come The chance to tear away Throw back the ancient rusted chains Broken

Broken So great a loss That I had failed to see There tossed and buried in the sand Would wait

Would wait And lie unclaimed Forgotten memories In the steady tide’s receding To deep

To deep I now return To hear the ceaseless waves The seagulls laugh, the sunset wanes To stay

A cinquain is a poem with five lines and twenty-two syllables: two in the first line, four, six, eight, and two syllables again in the last line.

This poem is a cinquain series, each one linked to the prior, as my birth, love, and return to the shoreline of the ocean are linked, my life obsession.

Copyright © 2022, Robert G. Metivier. All Rights Reserved.