Poem: things fall apart

irregularly but never at a slow burn

when the storm hits it is not the

anticipation that kills but the novice

treatment of destruction which makes it

unexpected in the same way a tsunami

is always shocking even though we

both stood at the shore and watched

the water recede at our feet i guess

sometimes we forget to look forward

instead of down at everything we once

had and by the time it all comes

crashing back to us we are swept away

by a mixture of baffled fish and

uprooted seagrass and glittering

seaglass that may have never found its

way to a beach into the swirling

turquoise with our life in bubbles all

around us that is to say we are always

naïve to handle the raw scope of life all

at once and think the storm will come

without sweeping us up too and you tell

me to run inland before the next storm

hits but I’d much rather feel terrified

alive on this beach than safe

 unconscious in kansas so the next time

i watch the ocean inch away from the

place my toes are buried i lie down and

feel every grain of sand on this beach

just for a second i feel every grain of

sand in the world against my skin and

when the ocean arrives i too am swept

up by the wave and crashed against

the shore but i do not pick myself up

again because i know that the largest

tsunamis do not come all at once but

little by little and each waves that takes

me to the edge of drowning always

places me on a new part of the beach

and i know by the end of the storm i will

have seen the world in a million

different beautiful ways