Sudden Death and the Sea

Prose Poetry

I am slammed by the shock of an unexpected death and I need to be by the sea. It is not the first time. When the world inside my head is shaken loose and set adrift, I know the ocean will still be there.

The waves roll in and roll out as they always do, never the same but never ceasing. The roar soothes my ears, so constant I don’t hear it and loud enough to drown my thoughts.

There is death out there too, under the surface, beneath the smooth horizon. While the sea has plenty of problems of its own, it seems too vast to be defeated. Through wild winds and hot currents and glassy patches, through green and blue and grey, it keeps moving, it keeps cycling.

It’s everywhere and it always has somewhere to go.

We came from the sea and maybe one day that’s where we’ll return. Maybe we are not meant for this life on dry land. There are too many choices and too much free will. Look where it gets us.

Maybe the sea is where we should be, surrendering control to the flow of the tides. Maybe the ocean’s our home, in the end. Until then I’ll remember to walk on the beach, whenever this land is too much, whenever the ground is too hard.