To David, A Poem About My Day

Being not judging

The space in between

You tell me

Meaning exists

As to why

Should I need this?

Waves come and go

But not really

Tides come and go

But not really

People, dogs, balls, words

Clouds, come and go

Day, night, driftwood, sand

I am privileged to experience

The infinite ways people branch toward the light

Taking a torch to their childhood home

Shattered by flashbacks of adults fighting

Or recognizing they now have skills

To help their distressed Mommy or Daddy

And this was yours

Auden always regretted

His most famous line

We must love one another or die

I watch the waves

Not really come and go

Clouds gently blanket

Bridges, mountains, towers

Being not judging

Between land and water

Between earth and sky

Between us and meaning

I am the beach

Sometimes swimming in the Bay

Makes my hands and feet feel like snow or static on the TV

Melting into the sun-baked sand

Lulled to sleep by memories of waves

Rocking my flailing body to shore

I don't know you and you don't know me

Let's always remember that

And not as the bow vibrates the string

More as the cloth finds dust in creases where rosin has fallen

Or the first time you touch a singing bowl

The ocean licking the rocks

In the cave mouth at low tide

Sucking the shingle

As the music travels across space and time

From a dead man's brain

To the cider filled room

Through my housemate's good intentions

And resonates with my memories

Of the ginger cat making big paws

Milking my belly

On my grandmother's gold velvet couch

Of ocean creatures pulsing together

A scent I only notice after you're gone

"Let me tell you for sure"

(Maybe holding my hands)

"Meaning exists"