A Walk Too Long

You have walked the beach alone
for far too long,
peace turning to isolation,
your thoughts feeding on themselves,
voracious and cruel.
You have seen the tides rise and fall
and rise again,
seeen clouds and sun,
heard the crashing of waves,
no longer distinct,
no longer seeing the magic
of the unique beauty, reducing them
to a dull roar.

It is time to go back,
before this communion with God and self becomes
something else,
a cancer
that feeds on itself
and leaves you a shell,
as helpless and dead
as the flotsam that is buffeted by waves
and carried out to sea
and thrown again on the sand,
beautiful corpses.

About this poem

At times independence and self reliance becomes something different. Something destructive. We were not meant to be alone. We were made for relationship, even introverts like me.

And if we battle depression? Isolation is the enemy.

Let me repeat: Isolation is the enemy.

Tom