Dolphin Walk
South Carolina, 2009

Picture
I sit on the barnacle-covered rock
Which sings as water escapes
Waves crash
On either side of our rock
My gaze shifts
Between growing waves
At a distance
The breaking wave
Closer in
Water
Hitting the shoreline
Each could hold my attention endlessly


Five hours of silence
Without writing
Or speaking
Or reading
Me, alone, on the beach

I fall into a deep space
Drift into myself
Fall into myself
I am all I need in those hours

I crave doing the twelve day
Silent meditation
Yet I fear it somehow
Until R suggests that I rethink the fear
Could it be completely awesome? He asks
Yes.
I feel ready.

Walk the beach, the ocean
A dolphin swims
Along-side me
At the same pace as I walk
She jumps out of the water
Checking on me
As I check on her

Even walking alone along the water
I feel a companion
Even if she is
A dolphin I’ll never touch
 
What does one do?
With endless time?
We all have it, yet convince
Ourselves that it’s filled with important details
That our actions are important
But really we all have endless time
Until it ends
What do I do with my endless time?

I sit alone
Wrapped in a blanket
Lean on sand dune
Hearing the reeds rub bodies
As off-leash dogs run into the river
Flowing and merging into the ocean
Rusty light-house across the water

Human figure appears as a black shape
Moving over the sand dunes
Across the way
Somehow I blend into the landscape
Beach-walkers speak as if I don’t even exist
Not aware that their voices carry
Across the sands.