OF TIDES AND TIMES

Deep stillness as the morning tide recedes:
Gently rippled water silently gives way
To furrowed sand and shallow pool.
Small boats, denied their raison d'être,
Surrender to the dying of the sea
And take their rest, now flotsam
On the shore: conspirators with nature,
They bide their time, still-beached as crocodiles.
And time there is, around the clock face
Of this fragile isle where wind and sun
In turn mark out the fleeting moments
Of our passing stay, inviting us to
Deeply breathe the ocean's oxygen.
Such azure restoration of the soul
Brings from the Deep, deep peace.


Rodrigues Island,
Indian Ocean
August 2013