Tide

There once was a shell,
On a moonlit beach,
In the cool, soft sand,
by the sea.

And every night,
That shell would wish,
To go home, 
where it was wild and free.

Every bump,
On its bleached white shell,
Wrote its story,
for all to see.

And its hollow curve,
Held a distant crash,
Of a stormy wave,
that played incessantly.

Then one night,
When the moon was full,
Like a glowing pearl,
in the sky.

The big waves came,
And scoured the sand,
With grooves,
and crested high.

The shell did yearn,
Till the right wave came,
picked him up, 
and rode back out on a sigh.

***

There once was a shell,
In the swirling depths,
In the dark,
at the bottom of the sea.

And every night,
It cried out in vain,
To be spat back out again-
to feel new, and calm; yet free.

To lay in the light of the moon,
On the cool, soft sand-
In a still, safe place; away from the waves-
A place where he could simply be.