Icy froth crashes over unshod feet,

Numbing and cramping as they slowly sink into sea-washed sand,

Pant legs soaked with limitless brine.

The gale whips up waves dressed in white one after another,

Chilling me to the bone with cold excitement,

Breath and spirit become one with the undulation.

Sting of salt spray does not deter as I spy the fractured horizon,

Dreaming of serving on the distant freighter

Rising and falling with the swells on it’s way to exotic ports.

What better life is there than to work shoulder-to-shoulder with your brethren

Under sun and on sea,

Conjoined with the natural forces overhead and underfoot.

Were it not for you my love– this destiny I would have fulfilled,

But alas…it was not to be,

For I love you more than the sand, the sun and the sea.

So here I stand,

Looking out on what might have been,

Joyful for what is

And content with what will be.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~