Creature of the Tides

Walk far enough
and the last of the footsteps will disappear.
It will be you and the sand and the sky
and the occasional ruin
of things that lingered too long against the storm.

Still, you walk. The tide goes out.
The beach grows wider.
The sky too.
and for this moment all is peaceful.
Yours are the only footsteps.
It is easy to pretend you are alone
and the world is yours to fill,
to release your demons and watch them evaporate
with no danger to anyone else.

It is a pretense, of course.
This sense of peace.
A respite, like low tide,
when all can be revealed in safety.
Like being in your lover’s arms,
A strange kind of eternity
you return to again and again.
A creature of the tides.