The skin of the beach was perforated by my footprints.
I walked along the stained path of least resistance, left behind by wave’s retreat.
Then it returns, an insurgency, fighting for territory.
It wanes again, just as quickly.
At furthest reach it bathed my feet.
My soles seek the firmest marriage of sand and water, where sun’s store is tempered by ocean cool.
Lean too landward and my strides would descend into hot and heavy dryness; too seaward and they were engulfed, turning this man into an unwilling island.
So I meandered, aiming for the anticipated boundary of that endless battle.
The land stands, but is crashed upon, invaded but unyielding.
The water lunges and slips away, lunges and slips away.
But what I witnessed were just marginal sorties, as two great wholes struggled for the balance of sea within land’s cup.
I misjudged the rush, it overran my knees.
As it did, I realized myself connected with everyone else caressed by Neptune.
You and your Alsatian walked a coast upon the other side of this earth.
The dog ran headlong into a fluid barrage, and you too were caught by the depth of its breach.
And at that moment we were connected across that expanse.
And I knew I was joined to you.
But as I stepped upward of water’s pull, I realized my fancy was understated.
For under this embracing pool, we were already standing on the same, single, core.
And it too conducts, from you to me, and me to you.
A line runs between us.
It joins us, wherever we are.
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