I wrote this poem for poetry night July 2016:
The Tide
By Michelle Brodie
July 2016
The ebb and flow of the tide washes the sand away
Sand castles of yesterday no longer here today
Here were gathered Sanderling, Sandwich Tern, Sandpiper, and Ruddy Turnstone
Now just Grackles on trash and the occasional Laughing Gull pass
And what of us?
A man’s mind like the vast universe
Gray matter, dark matter, white matter
The synapses no longer fire; he talks like the Mad Hatter
What goes on inside we cannot hear
It’s just that he cannot make himself clear
All part of the great unknown, the heavens above and the sea below
Where will we all end up. What will be our home?
What is visceral, what is real?
Man goes over the handlebars
His injuries are severe and instill fear
How will he end up he desperately wants to know
A woman watches, watches her husband growing old
The tide comes in and goes back out
It’s not laches; time just passes
never knowing how it will all turn out
How in future generations the story will be told
The tide comes the tide goes
How it will all turn out nobody knows
It doesn’t really matter
For it is the journey, the journey of life
We are carried on with the tide
The moon, the stars at night, the beautiful world we live in
our family, our friends
They keep us together and keep us from being left in tatters by all this strife
My family, my friends we must not be caught up in how it will all turn out
But enjoy this wondrous journey that we call life