POEM: At the Rest on the Shoal

There, on extended granite fingers
Lie the remains.
A shell amongst shells,
Lines rotten, the jib a jagged spike.
Sharp, lacerating eyes cling to every rock,
They witness the eternal passage of time.

It rests there, agape
Bleached white.
Static.
Who were you before?
Why do you lie, detached from the center?

A distant V wheels and dives.
Dark green swells of a mysterious world
Rise and sink,
The broken hull cares not at all.

Sands shift up and down,
Waves erode the shore.
Who were you before?
When time held meaning and urgency.
Who were you before the brine ate your thoughts
And life flowed in and out with the tide?