Mind over Matter.

How many nights does she wait by the water
with her handful of hope,
the little that is left of it?
She says you left without saying goodbye.
She says that is what they all say
and she scolds herself for recycled lines, despite their truths.
The Truth.
She says she thought she was brave enough to beat it.
But the fact is, here she sits with a skyline of sail boats and electric clouds,
ones she says she knows you would love
only love without saying.

How many times has she tried to say goodbye from this shore.
She says, always, just when she thinks she is through,
the waves wash in one more memory to lie shining at her feet.
She says she scoops them up and foolishly names them "faith",
pocketing each one as though they are rare shells.

How many nights does she spend in quiet confusion?
She says she wishes for a shipwreck of news.
She says she is looking for something to allow her to be done
but instead all she finds are these nights and these days,
this silence and solitude
and always the empty, unanswering horizon.


*photo copied from flickr.com/photos/ 96127391@N00/2587665389