Equate

How quick the change. One night you lied in the back of a school bus shivering as a full moon rose behind the pines, and suddenly one morning you watch turquoise waves slowly roll to their tropical shores, it’s a ruse, how is this life yours alone. I sat by the edge of the ocean for one still minute and looked at the water, quiet, steady. My grandmother always marveled at how we stepped into the same water as Cleopatra, as dinosaurs. They say you can’t step into the same river twice but my grandmother, she knew. The ocean follows me to the ends of the earth, every time I turn around here it is: reliable. We build homes around our hearts from whatever driftwood we may find, pray they will keep us safe, sheltered. At some point you let go of the house that burned to the ground.

At some point you decide to build anew.