To Love Like That
At the shore
two birds were locked
in love
or mortal combat
When the child between my knees
demanded why they danced
As if she knew the current
carrying them
was not the wind from which
she sheltered,
And I saw for a moment
the unspent span that lay
before her
like the sand our toes
had not yet touched
Until a wave, breaking,
heaved up a shell
which I held to her ear, saying
“Listen”:
For she might as well have asked me
why the sea is salt
as to define a force
like the tide that hurled
this empty life-house to her feet,
pink and broken,
its owner long eaten
or simply outgrown
like the self she will shed
when the swell overtakes her —
God willing she should love like that.
by Lucie M. Winborne
from Autumn Sky Poetry Number 20, January 2011
Photo by Christine Klocek-Lim
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