Curtsy

Sandpiper scurries
to and fro
with the fanciest of footwork
from tide’s leading flow,

dipping, receding,
with each orchestrated ebb,
back and forth
in time, once and again.

I raise my arms
and curtsy too
and dance
with the wind
despite the gray and
black and blue.

Morning Kiss

The sea oats
have grown tall;
I let them
skim my palm,

feel the tickles
gifted from heaven
as the sea’s soul
is orchestra lifted

above the tides
of this earth
to scoop me up
with open arms
into the surf.

I offer all I’ve brought
to sacrifice to God,

releasing the heavy,
releasing the pain,
hoping the ghosts
will choose escape

as I make it more
uncomfortable
to haunt these
inner spaces

tarnished, turning gold
from the light
of love
joining the soul’s.

My feet sink
in the warm silk
as my heart,
with you inside,
even more
fills.

Buoyant become
the weights
as the shackles and chains
give way
to become part
of the dark, watery
grave.

Today, I take
back my life.
Today the curse,
I unwind.

Wet feet,
sand clinging,
I walk back
and through my fingers,

the sea oats feel
the difference

as the sun
awakens,
rises to kiss
me so gently
once

again….

Poem and images ©LauraDenise

Erasure

Winds to be reckoned with
do more than make waves;
all evidence of human existence
is entirely without-trace erased.
Reset is the playing field.
Wiped clean, the slate.

Denied are the attempts
to leave any more prints.
The only impressions saved
are those upon the heart.
Is your legacy of love
enough to advance
to the next
start?

Poem and images ©LauraDenise

Re-Lighting

Rough week. Double red flags waving. The bay wilder than the ocean. It called me home. Here’s to the ones in the throes of it. Let’s relight ourselves. Again.

I give my light freely,
but sometimes it is taken,
emotional perpetrators
breaching my innermost spaces.

They underestimated
my strength
and did again
today,

for as long as there
is the sea and my God,
I will raise my arms
in faith;
you will never
keep me down
as long as there
are waves and rays.

I will wash
what you left
away.

You underestimated
our strength.

Return Me

Moonrise, ocean waves,
lull me awake;
wash over me
your indigo dreamscapes.

Ankle deep, the magic waters seep
up into the inner streams
of my being,
flush out the day’s impurities
until I’m cleansed of the trivial
that tries to cling.

Moonrise, ocean waves,
take me farther away:
return my form
for an hour
to mermaid.

Poem and image ©LauraDenise

Undam Me

It is the red-flagged waves,
the storm sirens,
that wake who I’ve been
for centuries dormant;
arms by themselves stretch,
welcome, open,
remembering the calling,
my true name on the cusp
of being unspoken,
on the cusp of the crescent,
my dreams dangled,
the cusp of my heart
releasing the rush withheld,
on the cusp of my emergence
from the cocoon that protects
the self. I am not afraid!
May these waves finally break
this manmade dam
and reveal once and for all
who I am!